Telstra eyes new Asian deals after $2bn CSL sale TELSTRA has signalled it is on the hunt for "bolt-on" acquisitions in Asia after the telco giant banked a $600 million profit from the sale of the last of its overseas mobile operations to HKT Limited for $US2.425 billion ($2.73bn). The sale of Telstra's Hong Kong-based CSL will generate a profit of about $600m as the telco offloads its entire 76.4 per cent stake in the company, valued at about $2bn, to HKT, which will also acquire the remaining 23.6 per cent of the company from New World Development. But while shares in the telco giant surged to an eight-year high of $5.23, before closing at $5.20, hopes held by investors for a special dividend from the proceeds of the sale are likely to go unfulfilled in the short term. Telstra boss David Thodey would not provide specifics on what that cash -- which would be incremental to the telco's free cashflow guidance of $4.6bn to $5.1bn in the 2014 financial year -- would be spent on, but he said "bolt-on" acquisitions and capital management options would be considered. "We continue to look at many different options in terms of how we can drive value," he said. We have enormous scale and scope right across Asia, and we continue to do both organic expansion as well as looking at what are the right bolt-ons to help us be successful. Mr Thodey said the telco would not be rushed into any purchases that did not fit its existing investment criteria, which was to be accretive to earnings per share after two years and to deliver a return on Telstra's weighted average cost of capital after three. "We're not emotionally driven just to do deals," Mr Thodey said. We're always very disciplined around our capital management framework. If we can realise more value by making a sale that's what we'll do, versus just continuing on in the market for the sake of it. Mr Thodey has publicly declared the importance of increasing Telstra's presence overseas, particularly in Asia where the region's growing middle class is fuelling new appetites for quality goods and telco services. And he said Asia would remain an important part of Telstra's strategy to target growth areas in the region alongside digital media and global applications and platforms. But the sale of CSL will put a big revenue dent in the Telstra's international business. CSL, one of the leading mobile operators in Hong Kong with close to four million customers, contributes $1bn a year to Telstra International, almost 60 per cent of its total revenue base of $1.7bn. However, Alphinity Investment Management principal Bruce Smith said the time was right for the sale. "It's a smart move for Telstra," Mr Smith said. CSL is a retail business but the real competitive advantage in Asia is really with corporate clients. They are likely to have better chance of success where the dollars on offer are much larger. Getting away from retail and focusing towards corporate is the best thing they can do. Mr Thodey had once hoped CSL could be a launch pad for Telstra to leap into China where there are about 1.2 billion mobile phones in use. At the company's financial results in August he said CSL was at "a critical point in terms of the geography of greater China, and so that's why we continue to look at what our options are there." But yesterday Mr Thodey conceded it would be years before China allowed foreign companies to enter the market. He said that if there were an opportunity to establish a business on the mainland, the sale of CSL wouldn't preclude it. "The question is whether that will happen or not and we've made a judgment at the moment that it is not critical to have a property in Hong Kong to participate in being a potential foreign (mobile reseller) in China should we decide to do that," Mr Thodey said. We have no mobile assets outside of Australia but we have significant infrastructure assets outside of Australia. That price has ballooned in the past week to about $28, valuing Telstra's investment in Autohome at $US1.9bn.