Info-Quest, On Telecoms Said to Consider Bids for Wind Hellas
September 09, 2010, 8:39 AM EDT
By John Glover and Kate Haywood
Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Info-Quest SA, Greece’s biggest computer maker, and On Telecoms are among the groups considering buying Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA, according to four people familiar with the situation.
Other potential bidders for the mobile-phone company controlled by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris include Telenor ASA, the Nordic region’s largest phone company, and Los Angeles-based investment firm Saban Capital Group Inc., said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Senior bondholders and Weather Investments, Sawiris’ investment company, are also looking at Wind Hellas’s financial information with a view to placing bids, the people said.
Wind Hellas, hurt by plunging consumer confidence and spending in the debt-ridden nation, is looking for a buyer and seeking to write off debt less than a year after emerging from bankruptcy. Binding bids for Greece’s third-largest mobile operator are due Sept. 15.
Telenor and Saban Capital’s interest in Wind Hellas were reported earlier by the Financial Times, which cited people familiar with the matter it didn’t name.
Pal Kvalheim, a spokesman for Telenor, declined to comment, as did Athens-based Info-Quest spokeswoman Fani Kirkou.
Sawiris didn’t respond to a message left on his cell phone. Spokeswoman for Saban at Sard Verbinnen & Co. in New York didn’t return a phone message left outside office hours. On Telecoms officials in Athens didn’t respond to four phone calls or an email seeking comment.
--Editors: Michael Shanahan, Paul Armstrong
Info-Quest, On Telecoms Said to Consider Bids for Wind Hellas - BusinessWeek