providence equity partners among bidders

December 12, 2012, 9:00 PM
Providence Equity Partners Among Bidders for Leighton Holdings’


By Gillian Tan

Private equity firm Providence Equity Partners has advanced to the second stage of bidding for Leighton Holdings Ltd.' LEI.AU +1.02%‘s fiber optic network Nextgen, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

In September, Leighton appointed Macquarie Capital to sell non-core assets Nextgen, data center designer-operator Metronode and cloud services provider Infoplex.

At the time, UBS analyst Sam Theodore estimated Nextgen alone could fetch up to 840 million Australian dollars (US$885 million) while Credit Suisse analyst Bradley Clibborn said Nextgen could raise up to A$1 billion.

Leighton and Providence spokespeople did not immediately return calls for comment.

Providence, which invests in media and communication companies, has not done an Australian deal since its July 2010 buyout of private education provider Study Group from Australia’s CHAMP Private Equity for A$660 million

http://blogs.wsj.com/dealjournalaustralia/2012/12/12/providence-equity-partners-among-bidders-for-leighton-holdings-nextgen/