Iliad CFO says new partners may aid T-Mobile US bid
Iliad [PA:ILD], the French telecom company, may bring in extra partners for a bid for Deutsche Telekom's [XETRA:DTE] US-based cell phone company T-Mobile US [NYSE:TMUS], Boersen-Zeitung reported.
The German daily cited Iliad's finance chief, Thomas Reynaud, as saying that the bid remains current, and may be developed further with new partners.
Without identifying sources, the newspaper said Iliad appears to be aiming to gain support from financial investors to gain more than 56.6% of the target's capital.
So far, Iliad has been offering USD 15bn for a 56.6% stake, and the listed German phone company has rejected this as too low.
According to Reynaud, Iliad would be prepared to undertake a capital increase of no more than EUR 2bn to finance the planned takeover. He said financing is assured, and a syndicate of European and American banks is working with Iliad on the offer.
Since the offer was put forward at the end of July, telecom companies and finance investors have approached Iliad to examine the possibilities of a joint offer, he said, adding negotiations are not yet concluded.
Reynaud said an increase to Iliad’s initial offer has not neen on the agenda in discussions with potential bid partners, the Financial Times reported.
The FT item noted that Deutsche Telekom had been in discussions this year regarding the mooted sale of a majority interest in T-Mobile to Sprint at a price of approximately USD 39 per share. The article quoted people familiar with Deutsche Telekom’s thinking who said any fresh offer needs to be closer to that valuation.
Source Boersen-Zeitung, Financial Times