SINGTEL’S Australian subsidiary, Optus, has inked a A$1.95 billion (S$1.64 billion) committed revolving credit facility with 12 banks to refinance its existing credit facilities, as well as for general corporate purposes.
The banks included Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Bank of China in Sydney, OCBC, DBS’ Australia branch and UOB’s Sydney branch.
The facility is guaranteed by Optus Finance’s parent company, Singtel Optus, and some of its subsidiaries, said the telecommunications giant on Friday (Jan 31).
Last November, Optus was fined A$12 million for failing to provide emergency call services to thousands of people during a nationwide outage in 2023.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority revealed that more than 2,000 customers could not access the emergency call service during the outage. The telecom carrier also failed to check up on more than 360 of those customers after the outage was resolved, said the regulator.
In October 2024, Optus was sued by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) over alleged sales misconduct.
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ACCC said Optus had purportedly sold mobile phones and plans to vulnerable customers, which included those with diminished cognitive capacity and learning disabilities.
The case concerned allegations that Optus engaged in improper sales practices, including reportedly hiring debt collectors to pursue customers despite being aware that their contracts were fraudulently created.
ACCC is pursuing penalties, consumer redress, a compliance programme and costs from Optus.
Optus has been struggling to restore its reputation since the September 2022 cyberattack compromised the data of more than a million customers, prompting nationwide demands for stricter privacy regulations.
Shares of Singtel closed 1.9 per cent or S$0.06 higher at S$3.26 on Tuesday.
