Aussie Broadband wants to buy Superloop

Alex Choros - Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor

Last updated 26 February 2024

Aussie Broadband has made a $466 million takeover offer for Superloop, in a move that would see it acquiring 100% of the provider. The acquisition would allow Aussie Broadband to better compete with the likes of Telstra, TPG, and Optus, and see its subscriber base exceed one million customers.

Assuming the majority of these are NBN customers, it would make Aussie Broadband larger than Vocus' (the parent company of Dodo and iPrimus) NBN business, and a similar size to Optus' NBN business. Vocus had 721,650 NBN customers at the end of September last year according to the ACCC, while Optus had 1.1 million. TPG and Telstra are larger with approximately 1.7 million and 3.5 million NBN customers, respectively.

"We believe the combination of Aussie Broadband and Superloop will be value accretive for both of our shareholders and importantly, improve our positioning and customer propositions in what is a highly competitive industry, " said Group Managing Director Philip Britt in a statement.

The deal is conditional on the Superloop board unanimously backing it, and Aussie Broadband being satisfied with due diligence. If it ends up going ahead, Exetel would also come into the Aussie Broadband family. Superloop acquired Exetel back in 2021.

Today's news follows Aussie Broadband's half-year results, where it revealed its NBN market share had grown to 8.3%, up from 7% at the end of 2022. These figures exclude satellite NBN customers.

As part of the announcement, Britt's role was changed to Group Managing Director, and it was noted he'll be responsible for group strategy, as well as merger and acquisition activities, seemingly foreshadowing today's news. Aussie Broadband has been quite active in snapping up companies recently, acquiring Uniti's customer base and cloud calling company Symbio last year 2023.

Update 26/02 5:52pm: Superloop's board of directors has rejected Aussie Broadband's offer. The board described that proposal as "opportunistic" and said it "fundamentally undervalues Superloop".

Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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