Singapore Telecommunications, Asia's eighth largest telecoms operator, has put in a revised bid for Australia's Cable & Wireless Optus.
A source declined to reveal any financial details but said talks with Britain's Cable & Wireless over its 52.5 percent stake in the Australian operator were non-exclusive, allowing other bidders to stay in the race.
"SingTel has put in a revised bid on Friday for C&W Optus," the source said.
Cash-rich SingTel, which has made no secret of its desire to expand in the region, last year tried to buy Hong Kong Telecommunications from C&W but lost out to Pacific Century CyberWorks.
It is not clear how SingTel would pay for C&W's stake in C&W Optus, which has a total market value of about AU$14.3 billion, but the group recently launched a S$1 billion bond, the largest Singapore dollar debt issue to date.
SingTel already has stakes in telecoms operators in India, Thailand and the Philippines.
C&W Optus, Australia's second-largest telecommunications carrier, put part or all of its assets up for sale in November and has received three non-binding indicative bids from three foreign telecommunications companies.
In addition to SingTel, Vodafone Group and Telecom NZ lodged undisclosed indicative bids. Australia's anti-monopolies watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, is still reviewing the proposals.
Vodafone - which has the third-largest mobile phone market share in Australia behind Optus and Telstra - and Telecom NZ are interested in the mobile assets, while SingTel is taking an integrated approach.
C&W chief executive Graham Wallace told a conference in New York that it expected to complete the restructuring of its Australian subsidiary later in the year.
