Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim’s America Movil (AMX) has acquired a 4.1% stake in Telekom Austria, marking its second significant foray into the European market.
AMX head of fixed operations, Oscar Von Hauske, confirmed that the company had built up…
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim’s America Movil (AMX) has acquired a 4.1% stake in Telekom Austria, marking its second significant foray into the European market.
AMX head of fixed operations, Oscar Von Hauske, confirmed that the company had built up its stake in the Austrian telco via the open market, Reuters reported. Von Hauske, who led AMX’s expansion in Latin America, said the company had been eyeing Telekom Austria for some time but declined to provide further details.
An Austrian media report stated Slim and fellow Telekom Austria shareholder Ronny Pecik are preparing to combine their stakes in the company – a move which, if successful, would see them own 24.2% of the company.
However, Von Hauske told Reuters he had not personally held talks with Pecik or his Egyptian investment partner Naguib Sawiris. Pecik and Sawiris have built up their 20.1% stake in Telekom Austria in recent months via investment vehicle RPR Privatstiftung. Pecik was elected to the company’s supervisory board at its 23 May AGM and Sawiris, who did not attend the AGM because of the Egyptian presidential elections, is also expected to seek board membership in the near future.
As previously reported, AMX has launched a partial cash tender offer of €8 per share to boost its stake in the Dutch telco KPN to 27.7%. KPN shareholders have until 27 June to take AMX up on the offer, although the telco is doing its best to convince them not to, deriding the offer, which equals total investments of €2.05bn (US$2.6bn), as far too low.
On 31 May, AMX said in a SEC filing it entered into a transaction that boosted its shares in KPN from 4.8% to 5.1%.
AMX was not immediately available for comment.
