Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Evans for the question. I can confirm that today the Australian government has participated in the launch of T3. That marks the formal launch of the T3 sale offer, including the prospectus. The prospectus outlines basic information about the company. It informs investors about potential risks. It provides details of the offer. The government has already announced that the size of the offer will be around $8 billion. That is a very large public offering—the biggest in Australia since T2. The prospectus is obviously a document that needs to comply with legal requirements in Australia and in other jurisdictions.

The prospectus has been the subject of consultation and advice. It enables retail and institutional investors to pay for their T3 shares in two instalments, with the second instalment payable in 18 months. It gives investors the opportunity to receive three dividend payments before having to pay the final instalment. It provides for the first instalment for retail investors to be at $2 a share. It represents a discount for retail investors of 10 per cent per share to the price payable by institutional investors. Subject to the caveats around Telstra’s dividend guidance, a 14 per cent franked dividend yield for T3 shares is expected for next year.

As the government and Senator Minchin foreshadowed in the lead-up to the offer launch, a new element in T3 that is different to T2 and T1 is a loyalty share. Rather than offer a cash discount on the second instalment, we are offering retail investors bonus loyalty shares. Senator Minchin said that the government had under consideration, in the lead-up to the offer, the way in which this loyalty arrangement would be constructed. So investors who purchase instalment receipts in T3 and hold them until the final instalment is due and paid will receive a loyalty discount of one bonus loyalty share for every 25 shares purchased in T3. A one-in-25 bonus share is an effective discount of four per cent.