Telstra investors launch anti-separation campaign

The second largest shareholder in Telstra has kicked off a campaign to try and persuade the Federal Government to change its mind about forcing the telco to structurally separate.

Bruce Teele, chairman of the Australian Foundation Investment Company, which with its associates owns around $200m of Telstra shares, has written an open letter to the Prime Minister, MPs and the Senate.

In the letter, which was published on the AFIC website (Word document), Teele expresses his "deep concern" at the proposed changes to the regulatory framework.

"At the time I acquired my shares in Telstra there was no prospect of the Government taking such unprecedented steps to attack the company and its shareholders. The Government has reaped the benefit of selling its interests in the company and having done so it now seeks to seriously damage the interests of all those who acquired their shares in good faith.

"I would urge that the Government seriously reconsider its approach which is to significantly undermine Telstra's position to the detriment of well over one million Australian shareholders ," said Teele in the letter.

The Future Fund, which is the largest Telstra shareholder, sold around $2.4bn worth of Telstra shares in late August, less than a month before the government announced its new regulatory framework.