Investment group PPF has bought an additional 7.16% stake in mobile operator O2 Czech Republic following a mandatory offer which ended on 30 June.
Local billionaire Petr Kellner’s PPF closed its Kc63.6bn (US$3.32bn) acquisition of a 65.9% stake in O2…
Investment group PPF has bought an additional 7.16% stake in mobile operator O2 Czech Republic following a mandatory offer which ended on 30 June.
Local billionaire Petr Kellner’s PPF closed its Kc63.6bn (US$3.32bn) acquisition of a 65.9% stake in O2 from Spain’s Telefonica in January and launched the mandatory tender, as required under Czech law, on 2 June.
Originally, PPF offered Kc295.15 (US$14.64) per share. The firm bought approximately 22.6 million additional shares, representing 7.16% of O2 CR’s equity and 7.28% in terms of voting rights.
PPF announced last week that it would not make an additional offer for the remaining stock, saying the conditions were not met.
During the tender offer period, the investment group received acceptance notices for almost 51 million shares, equivalent to a 16% stake.
“However, because of material formal shortcomings in some of the acceptance notices, which were at variance with the requirements of the offer document, [PPF] has been compelled to reject acceptance notices concerning a total of 28,128,887 shares of O2 CR and has not acquired the said shares,” PPF said in a statement.
Settlement is expected to take place on 14 August. PPF intends to keep the telco listed on the Prague Stock Exchange.
Under the deal with Telefonica, the Spanish incumbent will retain a 4.9% stake in O2, but may sell up to PPF four years after closing.
