Vodafone Greece has offered to buy the remaining shares in Hellas Online for €0.563 apiece after closing its takeover of the Greek fixed-line operator on 25 November. The €72.7m (US$97m) transaction raised Vodafone’s stake in Hellas Online from…
Vodafone Greece has offered to buy the remaining shares in Hellas Online for €0.563 apiece after closing its takeover of the Greek fixed-line operator on 25 November.
The €72.7m (US$97m) transaction raised Vodafone’s stake in Hellas Online from 18.5% to 91.2%. The British operator was then obliged to launch a mandatory takeover offer for the outstanding shares.
The UK-owned telco increased its stake after buying Greek telecoms investor Intracom Group’s 57.2% stake and World Equities Investments Holdings’ 15% stake in the fixed-line player.
Vodafone was advised by BofA Merrill Lynch on the deal and will finance it using its existing cash resources and committed but undrawn bank facilities.
The operator is now the number two player in Greece in both the mobile and fixed-line markets, based on its own revenue estimates.
Signed in August, the transaction gives Hellas Online an enterprise value of €311m, including €211m worth of debt.
When the deal was announced, Vodafone said the transaction valued Hellas Online at 4.5x its 2013 adjusted EBITDA and 9.8x its operating FCF for last year, equivalent to a multiple of 5.6x 2013 operating FCF adjusted for cost and capex synergies.
At the end of last year, Hellas Online had 519,000 customers giving it a market share of around 11%. It generated total revenue of €227.4m, EBITDA of €68.4m and capex of €36.7m.
The deal marks Vodafone Group’s latest acquisition of a fixed-line asset. The company has been pursuing a convergent strategy, looking to snap up fixed and cable assets in markets where it already offers mobile.
Vodafone has recently been reported to be considering a potential acquisition of Liberty Global and was rumoured to be having internal discussions about a bid. However, CEO Vittorio Colao downplayed the talk in a meeting with investors and analysts this week.
Colao reportedly said he would look at an acquisition of the Liberty’s German cable assets, Unitymedia Kabel BW, but was not interested in the group’s Belgian and Swiss operations because Vodafone does not offer mobile in those countries.
