The private equity owners of Polish mobile operator P4, which trades as Play, have reportedly suspended plans to sell the company as they could not decide whether to pursue an outright sale or partial listing.
The private equity owners of Polish mobile operator P4, which trades as Play, have reportedly suspended plans to sell the company as they could not decide whether to pursue an outright sale or partial listing.
Last year, the owners, Tollerton Investments Limited (50.3%) and Novator Partners (49.7%), reportedly mandated Bank of America Merrill Lynch to work on a sale or listing of P4. The investors, which took control of P4 in 2008, had hoped to agree a sale of the company for some PLN7.5bn (US$2bn) in Q1 or Q2 this year.
Overseas buyers including Telenor (OSE:TEL), TeliaSonera (STO:TLSN) and Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LIBTYA) – which owns local cableco UPC – had been named as potential suitors.
However, Reuters cited a market source saying that the owners have put these plans on hold, opting to refinance P4 debt instead. The pair may reconsider a sale, but not for at least a couple of months, two sources were cited saying.
Novator and P4 have declined comment on the matter, while Tollerton was not available.
Play claimed to have 13.5 million customers as of 2015, equal to a 23% market share. It competes with Orange’s and Deutsche Telekom’s local units as well as telecoms and media group Cyfrowy Polsat’s Polkomtel, which trades as Plus.