Belgian incumbent Belgacom is not looking to grow through M&A and feels a deal to acquire Dutch counterpart KPN remains impracticable, according to reports citing CEO Didier Bellens.
Bellens reportedly told the Morgan Stanley technology, media and…
Belgian incumbent Belgacom is not looking to grow through M&A and feels a deal to acquire Dutch counterpart KPN remains impracticable, according to reports citing CEO Didier Bellens.
Bellens reportedly told the Morgan Stanley technology, media and telecoms conference in Barcelona on 16 November that, despite such an M&A deal appearing natural, one of the issues preventing the move is the companies’ different levels of debt.
The net debt to enterprise value ratio is 0.15 for Belgacom, whereas KPN’s is 0.48, reported Reuters citing its own data.
Bellens reportedly added that the group intends to remain low-gearing, ruling out a deal for KPN’s German mobile operator E-Plus.
Belgacom was unable to elaborate on the comments before the press deadline.
In early September, Bellens told Belgian daily De Tijd that a KPN merger could make sense, although he had not identified many synergy advantages.
Despite observing limited growth potential in Europe, he was also cited at the time saying that Belgacom had continued to keep a look out for potential acquisitions.
Merger negotiations held between Belgacom and KPN in 2001 fell through because the Belgian group had asked for too much, such as moving the combined group’s headquarters to Brussels, according to reports in September citing former Belgacom CEO Bessel Kok, who has called on the group to reignite merger talks with KPN.
