The Tsai brothers, owners of Taiwan’s second largest mobile operator, may try to buy Kbro directly, to work around the Taiwanese government’s block on the transaction.
Taiwan Mobile had agreed to buy cable operator Kbro from private equity house, The…
The Tsai brothers, owners of Taiwan’s second largest mobile operator, may try to buy Kbro directly, to work around the Taiwanese government’s block on the transaction.
Taiwan Mobile had agreed to buy cable operator Kbro from private equity house, The Carlyle Group last September for NT$32.8bn (US$1.02bn) in stock and an assumption of NT$24bn (US$746m) debt.
However, the Taiwanese government have so far refused to approve the acquisition.
The Tsai brothers are now considering buying the company under their own mandate – not under the umbrella of Taiwan Mobile.
“This is the direction we are heading and this is the option we are exploring with Carlyle,” Daniel Tsai, vice chairman of Taiwan Mobile said in an interview with Taiwan’s Economic Daily.
Tsai declined to comment on the value of the deal or whether his family may set up a separate company to execute the transaction.
Taiwan Mobile is minority-owned by the Taipei City Government, meaning the carrier is barred from buying Kbro under the current rules.
The acquisition of Kbro, with 1.7m subscribers, would let Taiwan Mobile leapfrog China Network Systems, controlled by MBK Partners, and Taiwan Broadband Communications, owned by Macquarie, into top spot as the largest telecoms operator in the country.
Fubon Financial Holdings, chaired by Daniel Tsai, is the largest shareholder in Taiwan Mobile, which is chaired by his brother Richard Tsai, through Fubon Securities and Fubon Life Insurance. Taiwan Mobile declined to comment in a statement today, saying the matter is private, involving the Tsai family. Dorothy Lee, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Carlyle, also declined to comment.
