As the days wind down to the November 26 deadline for the $9 billion National Broadband Network bids, Optus parent Singapore Telecommunications has announced new loans of about S$1.07 billion (A$1.09 billion) from banks in Singapore and Australia.

The company agreed to a five-year, S$350 million credit facility with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, DBS and Overseas-Chinese Banking. Australian unit Optus agreed to a separate A$725 million facility with five banks.

Optus leads the Terria group, which plans to bid for the multi-billion high-speed Internet network in Australia. SingTel is also part of a group building a S$3 billion Internet network in Singapore.

The Optus loan will be arranged by the ANZ, CBA, Westpac, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Citibank, SingTel said. It will fall due in April 2012.