Telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel is said to be nearing a deal to take Cable and Wireless Communications’ (CWC) majority stake in Monaco Telecom, which is the incumbent operator in the principality of Monaco.
Niel is looking to buy the quad play operator in…
Telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel is said to be nearing a deal to take Cable and Wireless Communications’ (CWC) majority stake in Monaco Telecom, which is the incumbent operator in the principality of Monaco.
Niel is looking to buy the quad play operator in a personal capacity – as opposed to through his French challenger Iliad – for us much as US$450m, two people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.
Monaco Telecom was set to be sold to Batelco when CWC disposed of a range of disparate operators to the Bahraini telco in late 2012. However, the Monegasque government, which holds 45% of the operator, blocked the deal so the two telcos had to unwind the agreement at the end of last year.
The deal with Batelco valued Monaco Telecom at US$445m and would have seen the Arab telco take control of the Compagnie Monagesque de Communications (CMC) vehicle, which holds CWC’s 55% stake in the incumbent.
When that deal fell apart CWC’s then-CEO Tony Rice said that “Monaco remains a strong and growing operation within our group and we are reviewing our options for the business”.
Should CWC successfully offload Monaco Telecom it would be the first significant event in the tenure of the British group’s new CEO, Phil Bentley.
CWC is in the process of moving its operational headquarters from London to Miami as it looks to become more focused on what it dubs the “pan-American” region where its business is focused.
A sale of the Monaco business could allow CWC to embark on M&A. Last November, before his departure at the end of the year, Rice said that the telco was looking at inorganic growth opportunities in Central America and the Caribbean.
“We are looking at any acquisitions that come up in that region to see if they make sense. But I’ve always said we won’t sell cheaply and we won’t overpay for businesses,” Rice said at the time.
“We have been aware of the fact that we’re going to have a largely unlevered balance sheet for many months now and we haven’t bought anything,” he said.
“The reason we haven’t bought anything is that we’ve yet to see something that meets our criteria, which is somewhere we can add value to the group, and get it at an acceptable price.”
