"I think as in any M and A (merger and acquisitions) transactions, there were its ups and downs," a clearly relieved Lee said in summing up the six-month long negotiations.

"We had what we thought was needed. We believe the outcome is one that we are happy with," he said of SingTel's A$17.2 billion (US$8.6 billion) friendly takeover offer for Optus, announced on Mar 26.

Orchestrating the largest foreign investment made by a Singaporean company could see the 43-year-old Lee finally step out of the shadows of his elder brother, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and father Lee Kuan Yew, the city-state's founding father and first prime minister.

The going has not been easy for Lee, a father of three who graduated in engineering with first class honours at Cambridge University and holds an MSc in management science from Stanford University.

Last year he lost out in a bid for Hong Kong's Cable and Wireless HKT, beaten by Pacific Century Cyberworks headed by Richard Li, who recently admitted he did not have a Stanford degree, despite claims to that effect in publicity from some of his companies.

SingTel also failed in an attempt to take over Malaysian company Time dotCom.

The two highly publicised defeats led skeptics to question the ability of the soldier-turned-corporate chief to achieve SingTel's ambitions of being a pan-Asian telecoms giant.

The carrier was forced to look offshore to offset declining revenues after the government deregulated the telecom market last April, a year ahead of schedule, eroding SingTel's domestic market share.

Lee has also had to deal with suggestions that being a son of Lee Kuan Yew had worked against SingTel's overseas forays.

In contrast, his elder brother Hsien Loong was winning accolades abroad for his bold moves to liberalise the city-state's financial sector, which included among other things the entry of more foreign banks, and has been tapped at home by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong as his favoured successor.

But the period in the limelight for Lee Hsien Yang may not be all acclaim judging by the dive in SingTel's share price since the Optus takeover was announced.

In two days of trading SingTel shares have fallen 54 cents or 22 percent from S$2.42 $1.90 at the close on Mar 27. Investors fear the carrier is overpaying for Australia's second biggest telecom operator.

But Lee was unfazed by the negative reaction from investors, saying "it would take some time for people to understand what has been put to the shareholders."

SingTel chairman Koh Boon Hwee said the carrier does not monitor its shares movement "on a day to day basis" and described the offer to buy Optus as a "fair one."

"We have taken pains to structure this to ensure that we remain very strong in our balance sheet," he said.

The takeover was sanctioned almost immediately by the Australian government, and if approved by Optus shareholders, it will make SingTel an Asian telecommunications heavyweight with a market capitalisation of $49 billion (US$24.5 billion US) and revenue of $10 billion.