CEE focussed private equity firm Mid Europa Partners (MEP) has been approached by strategic and financial parties interested in smaller Baltic mobile operator Bite, TelecomFinance understands.
A formal sales process has not been launched yet and MEP…
CEE focussed private equity firm Mid Europa Partners (MEP) has been approached by strategic and financial parties interested in smaller Baltic mobile operator Bite, TelecomFinance understands.
A formal sales process has not been launched yet and MEP does not have advisers for a deal, but an exit within the next 9 to 18 months is seen as likely.
Bite operates in Lithuania and in Latvia. According to the local Communications Regulatory Authority Bite had a market share of below 28% in Lithuania in Q2/2013, putting it in third place after Omintel (30.6%) and Tele2 (39.3%).
It is also the third largest mobile operator in Latvia, according to the MEP website, where it competes with LMT, in which TeliaSonera is the largest investor, and Tele2.
Mid Europa Partners first invested in Bite in 2007. In its Q3/2013 results, Bite reported EBITDA of €39.9m for the first nine months of last year and net debt of €184.8m.
The owners hope the target could fetch multiples in line with similar recent transactions, including the sale of Telefonica Czech Republic, which was sold to PPF at a multiple of 5.8x EV/2014E EBITDA.
The firm considers a trade sale or secondary buyout as likely scenarios. An IPO is not ruled out, although this option has not been examined in great detail at this point.
MEP has exited most of its telecoms investments over the past 18 months, including SBB/Telemach, Orange Austria, and, most recently, a 39% stake in T-Mobile Czech Republic.
