Se non erro qualcuno era interessato a bond di Polkomtel.
Occhio perché pare vada soggetta ad un LBO da parte di equity firms, anche se è un LBO interessante perché il leverage espresso dal prezzo di acquisto (che sarà ricaricato come debito sulle spalle della società preda) decisamente basso, e ancor più per il segmento telecom, pari a 6x EBITDA.
I venditori sono società statali e la politica ha giocato un ruolo già altre volte nelle vicende di Polkomtel.
Peraltro alcune delle equity firms in questione sono fra quelle azionisti uscenti di TDC, che a propria volta, nell'ambio del deleverage che fece seguito al LBO del 2005, alienò appunto una quota di Polkomtel.
FT.com / Telecoms - Private equity groups line up bids for Polkomtel
Private equity groups line up bids for Polkomtel
By Martin Arnold and Andrew Parker in London and Jan Cienski in Warsaw
Published: September 5 2010 19:33 | Last updated: September 5 2010 19:33
Some of the world’s biggest private equity groups are lining up €4bn ($5.2bn) leveraged buy-out bids for Polkomtel, one of Poland’s biggest mobile phone operators, in which Vodafone owns a stake of almost 25 per cent.
Apax Partners,
Blackstone, TPG and CVC Capital Partners are among the big private equity groups working on potential bids for Polkomtel, which is expected to start a sale process as early as next month.
The buy-out groups could get a clear run at Polkomtel because the mobile phone operator is unlikely to attract interest from large European telecommunications groups. A buy-out of the group would be one of Europe’s biggest private equity deals since 2007.
France Telecom and
Deutsche Telekom already have Polish mobile businesses and would almost certainly run into objections by regulators if they tried to buy Polkomtel.
Blackstone and TPG are working on a joint bid for Polkomtel. The company is likely to be valued at about six times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, which fell 14 per cent to 2.7bn zlotys ($883m) last year.
The Polish mobile market is dominated by three large operators of about equal size. Polkomtel and France Telecom’s Orange both have about 14m mobile customers, while Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile has 13m.
Vodafone, which once wanted control of Polkomtel, is now willing to sell its 24.4 per cent stake as the UK mobile group looks at maximising returns to its shareholders in part by selling minority stakes.
Vodafone has made no decisions on whether to sell but people familiar with the UK group said it was willing to exit if an appropriate offer was made. While Vodafone could retain its stake, it is unlikely to exercise a right of first refusal that would enable it to buy out Polkomtel’s other shareholders.
Polkomtel, founded in 1996, reported 8bn zlotys of revenue in 2009, down 6 per cent compared with 2008 because of the economic downturn and intense competition in an increasingly saturated market.
In 2008, when
TDC, a Danish company,
sold its 25 per cent stake in Polkomtel, the company was valued at €3.7bn. Blackstone and Apax are both investors in TDC, so they have more detailed knowledge of the Polish group.
Any sale is unlikely to be completed before next year.
Four state-controlled Polish companies – energy group PGE, copper miner
KGHM, oil company
PKN Orlen, and coal trader Weglokoks – own slightly more than 75 per cent of Polkomtel. They have been talking for years about selling their Polkomtel stakes and recently appointed advisers as some need to fund investment plans.