Finnish telco Elisa has launched a tender offer for the 67.5% of shares in smaller rival Anvia that it doesn’t already own. Its €2,000 (US$2,227) per share offer is the same as that rejected by the target’s management in 2014 as too low.
Finnish telco Elisa (HEL:ELI1V) has launched a tender offer for the 67.5% of shares in smaller rival Anvia that it doesn’t already own.
Elisa, which is Anvia’s largest shareholder, said in a stock exchange filing that the offer, at €2,000 (US$2,227) per share, will run from 8 February to 8 March.
Helsinki-based Elisa offered the same amount per share to take control of Anvia, the country’s fourth-largest fixed-line operator, in early 2014, but the target’s management rejected it as too low.
Subsequent plans for an Anvia IPO were shelved, which New Street Research analysts said is presumably why Elisa is making another opportunistic offer.
Noting that Elisa’s last offer valued Anvia, which operates in Western Finland, at €112m (US$124.74m), the analysts said “Elisa claim that synergies are material, hence why the deal is attractive”.
They added that Elisa has said the offer in no way reflects a change of M&A policy, meaning it will not be looking at assets outside Finland, but that it is important for the larger operator’s “high-yielding equity story”.
Elisa claims to serve 2.3 million individual, corporate and public administration organisation customers. The company reported revenue in 2015 of €1.57bn (US$1.75bn).
According to Elisa, Anvia generated €106m (US$118.06m) in revenue in 2014.