Belgian cableco Telenet’s fourth largest shareholder Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has rejected Liberty Global’s (LGI’s) €35 per share takeover offer, saying it will not take part in the tender.
Oslo-based NBIM, which holds 4,855,947…
Belgian cableco Telenet’s fourth largest shareholder Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has rejected Liberty Global’s (LGI’s) €35 per share takeover offer, saying it will not take part in the tender.
Oslo-based NBIM, which holds 4,855,947 shares (equal to a 4% stake) in Telenet, released a short statement saying that “based on information as of today” it will not accept LGI’s voluntary and conditional offer.
An NBIM spokesperson declined to provide further comment.
US-based LGI launched the tender offer for the 49.6% of Telenet it does not already own on Tuesday (18 December), valuing it at about €2bn.
Telenet’s board responded by reiterating its contention that the offer does not reflect the value of the company and its prospects, adding that it would consider recommending an offer of €39 and €40 per share.
LGI first announced its intention to launch the offer in September, prompting the Telenet board to hire Lazard to evaluate the bid. Lazard’s resulting fairness opinion valued Telenet’s shares at €37 and €42 each.
LGI has repeatedly said it will not increase its offer price. On Tuesday the company described it as “highly attractive”, saying it represented a 12.5% premium to the Telenet closing share price on 19 September 2012.
However, Telenet said the premium was inappropriately low and falls short of the average premium of approximately 20% in other comparable European minority take-out bids.
Shareholders have until 11 January 2013 to accept the offer.
Telenet’s second and third largest shareholders are BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Omega Advisors respectively.
