UK mobile giant Vodafone looks set to receive enough shareholder votes to take over local telco Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04bn (US$1.63bn).
CWW’s largest shareholder has announced plans to vote in favour of Vodafone’s offer, clearing…
UK mobile giant Vodafone looks set to receive enough shareholder votes to take over local telco Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04bn (US$1.63bn).
CWW’s largest shareholder has announced plans to vote in favour of Vodafone’s offer, clearing the way for the 38p per share deal.
Orbis, which holds a 19.06% stake, said this morning that it would vote in favour of the offer, after CWW revealed it had received proxy votes for the deal from 58.77% of its shareholders. Vodafone only needed 75% of shareholder approval to proceed with its scheme of arrangement. If it had received less than this, it would have faced launching a standard takeover that would likely preserve minority interests.
The support of Orbis had been seen as crucial for the deal, and the institutional investor had criticised the offer as undervaluing the company.
However, Orbis said that, after it had seen the support the deal had already received from other shareholders, “we now believe that the CWW scheme of arrangement will eventually succeed, even if Orbis were to vote against it today. In these circumstances, our opposition would only serve to prolong the process because the company would likely adjourn today’s meetings to secure the necessary votes. This is not in the interests of any CWW stakeholder. Accordingly, Orbis intends to vote in favour of the Scheme at the meetings today.”
The rest of the votes were still being cast as TelecomFinance was going to press.
The companies expect to hold a court hearing to sanction the scheme of arrangement on 26 July, dependent on regulatory clearances.
