Belgian media group De Persgroep has emerged as a new potential bidder for Dutch telco KPN’s Belgian mobile unit Base.
De Persgroep – which owns several Belgian and Dutch newspapers, a 50% stake in TV and radio group Viaamse Mediamaatschappij and,…
Belgian media group De Persgroep has emerged as a new potential bidder for Dutch telco KPN’s Belgian mobile unit Base.
De Persgroep – which owns several Belgian and Dutch newspapers, a 50% stake in TV and radio group Viaamse Mediamaatschappij and, via the latter, local MVNO Jim Mobile – is working on a non-binding offer with unidentified financial partners, one of the company’s newspapers, Belgian business daily De Tijd, reported.
KPN mandated JP Morgan to auction Base in June and confirmed on Tuesday that the sale process has begun. Belgium’s third largest mobile operator after Belgacom-owned Proximus and Mobistar, Base is expected to command a price of about €1.6bn to €1.8bn.
Several private equity firms – including Bain, Blackstone, Cinven, KKR and Providence– as well as Belgian cableco Telenet may also place first-round bids before the end-of-July deadline, De Tjid reported. A Dow Jones report cited unidentified sources as saying private equity firm Carlyle Group has also expressed interest and that Cinven and Telenet are preparing a joint bid.
Jim Mobile uses Base as its MNO and has about 600,000 customers, according to the Belgian report.
