Bahraini incumbent Batelco has completed its acquisition of Cable and Wireless Communications’ (CWC) Monaco & Islands portfolio for US$570m, on a cash and debt free basis.
It has bought the UK-listed company’s entire interest in the Maldives, the…
Bahraini incumbent Batelco has completed its acquisition of Cable and Wireless Communications’ (CWC) Monaco & Islands portfolio for US$570m, on a cash and debt free basis.
It has bought the UK-listed company’s entire interest in the Maldives, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, and in the Falkland Islands, St Helena, Ascension and Diego Garcia.
Batelco also acquired a 25% shareholding in Compagnie Monagesque de Communications (CMC), which holds CWC’s 55% interest in Monaco Telecom. Under a put and call arrangement Batelco can buy the other 75% of CMC for US$345m over the next 12 months.
CWC said regulatory approval for the disposal of the Seychelles business – part of the original deal was yet to be obtained. Accordingly the deal value has fallen by US$110m from the original U$680m, in line with how the deal was structured.
However, the deal was designed so that completion was only dependent on regulatory approval in Guernsey and the Maldives, as they represent the vast majority of the division’s EBITDA.
Following today’s closing CWC has disposed eight out of the 11 businesses that make up its Monaco & Islands unit, now only holding stakes in Afghanistan, Monaco and the Seychelles. CWC said it received US$31m, in addition to the sale price, from the cash which the businesses held.
In a statement Batelco’s CEO Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa said: “With the added scale, we hope to achieve greater synergies in areas such as procurement, investments in network infrastructure, applications and content, global roaming arrangements, talent management and executive leadership development, across all the businesses.
Reports of a deal first came out last September, an agreement was reached in December and CWC shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the disposal at the start of the year. Also in January CWC agreed to sells its controlling stake in Macanese operator CTM to Chinese state-owned telco Citic. That deal is yet to close.
The UK-listed company’s focus is on the Caribbean and Central America, and it could expand in the region. Reports have said it is targeting acquisitions in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, once these disposals are completed.
Batelco’s lead financial advisor was Houlihan Lokey. Citigroup also served as a financial advisor.
Linklaters and Ernst & Young acted as legal and accounting/tax advisers respectively, whilst Oliver Wyman was engaged to complete commercial and technical due diligence.
JP Morgan and Akira Partners acted as financial advisers to CWC.
