T-Mobile execs deem Niel offer serious, amid regulatory concerns about Sprint proposal
Frenchman Xavier Niel’s USD 15bn offer for 57% in T-Mobile US has been deemed serious by some of the target’s executives, according to a report from the Journal du Dimanche. A portion of a report sourced to a person close to the company said the execs noted the lack of competition issues arising from such a tie-up of Niel’s Iliad group and the number four US mobile telco.
Niel is up against Sprint in the bidding for the Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile US, the JDD noted. The New York Times’ Dealbook column on the matter deemed the rationale behind such a Franco-American linkage dubious in some ways. Dealbook said antitrust fears may be sparked by a Sprint/T-Mobile merger, but also said that Niel would end up saddled with heavy debt were he to follow through on a stated commitment to fund only USD 2bn of the deal with equity. The columnist Robert Cyran concluded that Iliad might pose a threat to Softbank-owned Sprint in the tug of war for T-Mobile.
On Friday it was reported that the UK’s HSBC and France’s BNP Paribas were lined up to provide debt on the French side. The item attributed the information to unidentified sources. Iliad was advised by Lazard on the USD 15bn offer for about 56.6% of the Bellevue, Washington company now owned by German incumbent telco Deutsche Telekom.
Source Journal du Dimanche (France), The New York Times