By Yifan Wang

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. on Friday said it is selling 70% of an Australian unit for $1.9 billion Australian dollars ($1.37 billion), the latest step by the Southeast Asian telecom operator to optimize its large portfolio of telecom infrastructure assets.

Proceeds from the sale of the stake in Australia Tower Network, which operates infrastructure for the telecom carrier Optus, will be used to fund Singtel's 5G rollout and other new growth opportunities, it said.

Singtel also said it will start a regional data-centre business with Thailand's Gulf Energy and Telkom Indonesia, in a bid to capture new demand and opportunities arising from the "digital wave sweeping Asia."

Singtel in May outlined a strategic overhaul, proposing to optimize and restructure its telecom infrastructure assets, which include mobile towers, data centres, subsea cables and satellites.

Write to Yifan Wang at yifan.wang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-30-21 2041ET