The offer Deutsche Telekom made last week for the 49% of Slovak Telekom it does not already own valued the stake at €900m, according to Reuters citing government officials.
On the eve of the National Property Fund’s (NPF) initial public offering…
The offer Deutsche Telekom made last week for the 49% of Slovak Telekom it does not already own valued the stake at €900m, according to Reuters citing government officials.
On the eve of the National Property Fund’s (NPF) initial public offering of Slovak Telekom shares, Deutsche Telekom stole in with an offer described by the Ministry of Finance as “substantially higher”.
The NPF and the government both preferred an IPO, but said as “managers of state property acting with due care” they could not ignore Deutsche Telekom’s offer, a spokesman told TelecomFinance.
The Ministry declined to disclose the size of the offer. Deutsche Telekom declined to comment on the offer.
Indicative pricing for the listing had been set at €17.7-€23.6 per share in April and the offering closed last Wednesday, with Slovak Telekom’s shares reported to have settled towards the bottom end of that range.
It was at this last minute stage that Deutsche Telekom, which owns 51% in the operator, made its move. A valuation of €17.7 per share would have meant the NPF could have expected proceeds of around €750m for its 42.3 million shares. The German giant’s offer was €150m more than that meaning it was too good to turn down. Despite the premium, Deutsche Telekom is still paying less than €1bn the stake would have been valued at had it priced at the top of the range.
Citigroup and JP Morgan advised NPF on the privatisation process as a whole. Erste Group and Wood & Co were also working on the IPO before it was cancelled.
The privatisation of Slovak Telekom began in the summer of 2000 when Slovakia’s Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications sold 51% of the incumbent to Deutsche Telekom.
Slovak Telekom is the country’s largest integrated telco and second-largest mobile operator behind Orange’s local unit. It claims to have 1.16 million fixed-line and 2.22 million mobile subscribers.
