MasMovil, itself owned by Providence Equity Partners, Cinven and KKR, confirmed its intentions to launch a "friendly takeover" yesterday. Reports stated Euskaltel is worth nearly $2.4 billion.
Shareholders own 52.32% of Euskaltel’s capital and MasMovil is offering €11.17 euros per share in cash, a 16.48% premium on Friday’s closing price.
MasMovil said its offer was conditional on achieving "the acceptance of at least 75% plus one share of the capital" and, of course, obtaining all appropriate competition and regulatory authorisations.
Euskaltel’s board of directors has appointed Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG as financial advisor and Uría Menéndez as legal advisor.
Last year, the Basque country-focused Euskaltel launched mobile, broadband and TV nationwide through the Virgin brand.
At the time, Laurent Paillassot, chief executive of Orange Spain, told the FT that the prospect of five national competitors was “unsustainable” in the long term.
His comments came five years after Vodafone and Orange bought out their smaller competitors Jazztel and Ono.
In its 2020 full years financials, released in February, Euskaltel said the year marked its return to "significant growth", with 47,000 fixed customer net adds and 71,000 Virgin fixed and mobile customers by the end of the year. It added that Virgin telco’s growth "continues to accelerate, beating year-end target by over 50%".
