Sale of Telekom Srbija may be cancelled (Serbia)
The government officials have stated that Serbia may decide not to sell a 51% stake in Telekom Srbija if bidders offer less than the minimum price of US$1.9 billion.
According to the officials, they will not sell it at any cost. If offers are below minimum price then they will say that the tender had failed.
Four firms are seen as expected bidders in the sale, for which Belgrade has set 21 March as a deadline for binding bids.
The official added that Deutsche Telekom, Telekom Austria, VimpelCom and Weather Investments would be likely bidders. France Telecom has already left, while America Movil and Turkcell are almost certain to pull out.
Turkcell and France Telecom have stated that they would not be bidding as the prices are too high.
Telenor takes legal action to prevent VimpelCom merger
Telenor’s opposition to VimpelCom’s proposed acquisition of Wind Telecom (formerly Weather Investments) shows no sign of letting up, with the Norwegian firm initiating a court case to protect the pre-emptive rights†that it enjoys as a key VimpelCom shareholder.
With economic interest of 39.6% and a voting share of 36%, Telenor’s stake in VimpelCom is second only to Russian group Altimo’s. Together with VimpelCom, the Russian group is the target of Telenor’s legal action, with the Norwegian company arguing that VimpelCom’s proposed acquisition of Wind Telecom is not a Related M&A Transaction under the VimpelCom Shareholders Agreement.â€
Telenor’s objection stems from a discrepancy between economic and voting rights that will arise if the deal closes; the voting interest of current Wind Telecom shareholders would be significantly higher than their economic interest 30.6% against 20% respectively.
Meanwhile, Telenor’s voting stake would be lower than its economic stake 25% and 31.7% respectively. Maintaining its objection that the merger with Wind Telecom would not be in the best interests of VimpelCom shareholdersâ€, Telenor is attempting to prevent VimpelCom shares from being issued to Wind shareholders essentially derailing the merger.
OTE to sell Its 20% stake in Telekom Srbja
Serbian press reported that Hellenic Telecommunications decided to sell its 20% stake in Telekom Srbja, according to Proton Bank.
In its morning report, Proton says that Serbian government stated that it could sell a 31% stake in the operator instead of 51%, if OTE was to sell its stake.
The starting price was set at EUR1.4bn for the 51% stake, implying EUR2.7bn for the whole company and EUR549mn for 20% stake owned by OTE.
France Telecom is not expected to place a bid as the price is considered too high, while Vimpelcom decided to make an offer, according to the reports.
Additionally, Telekom Austria, DT, Turkcell, America Movil, and Weather Investments have also applied to participate in the tender.
The deadline for the submission of bids is set on March 21.
Sources say VimpelCom board to review new Sawiris deal
If sources are to be believed, VimpelCom’s board will discuss a revised offer for Naguib Sawiris’ telecoms assets on Sunday in a bid to save the troubled deal after opposition by key shareholder Telenor.
Norway’s Telenor last month rejected VimpelCom’s original $6.6 billion bid for control of Orascom Telecom and Italy’s Wind — a deal which would see it and Russian shareholder Altimo lose influence on the company’s board.
According to sources, VimpelCom and Sawiris’ holding group Wind Telecom — formerly known as Weather Investments — will both hold board meetings on Sunday to vote on the new terms but declined to elaborate. The new proposal could see Sawiris deprived of seats on VimpelCom’s board but instead receive a bigger stake in the merged company.
Sawiris’s Weather renamed as Wind Telecom (Egypt)
Egyptian mobile operator Orascom Telecom unveiled that its parent company Weather Investments, which plans a $6.6 billion deal to sell assets to Russian operator VimpelCom, has changed its name.
According to Orascom Telecom, Weather, the investment vehicle of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, switched its name to Wind Telecom on Dec. 30.
The holding company agreed to sell controlling stakes in Orascom and Italian operator Wind Telecomunicazioni in October, but opposition from VimpelCom shareholder Telenor has cast doubt on the deal. It is now reviewing a revised offer for the assets.
Weather still studying revised VimpelCom bid (Italy)
Weather Investments, owned by Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris has stated that it had received a revised offer from VimpelCom to buy most of its telecom assets but was still studying the offer before taking a decision.
VimpelCom in October had announced the proposed acquisition of Weather assets, including a controlling stake in Egyptian mobile firm Orascom Telecom and all of Italian operator Wind. VimpelCom’s Norwegian shareholder Telenor later refused to give its support.
As per Weather’s Spokesperson, Weather Investments confirms having received the offer from VimpelCom. It is being carefully studied to ensure taking a decision in the best interest of its shareholders. The decision will be taken very soon and will be communicated to VimpelCom’s management.
A Weather official had earlier stated that the company would complete its review of the VimpelCom offer on Dec. 24.
VimpelCom approves a revised merger with Weather Investments
VimpelCom’s Board of Directors has approved the proposed merger of VimpelCom and Egypt based Weather Investments but added that it did not take a decision on certain shareholder-related issues.
As expected, six of the nine directors, including all three independent directors and the three Altimo-nominated directors, voted in favor of the Transaction, with the Telenor-nominated directors voting against the Transaction.
The Supervisory Board did not approve an amended Shareholder Agreement or vote on other shareholder-related agreements due to Telenor’s publicly stated position that, in its capacity as a shareholder of VimpelCom, it does not support the merger.
According to VimpelCom, in light of Telenor’s opposition as a shareholder, at this time no agreement has been reached with respect to the shareholder related agreements that were contemplated to be entered into in connection with the transaction.
Therefore, the Board has authorized the Company’s CEO to review and take into account the rights and obligations of the parties under the current VimpelCom Shareholders Agreement and bye-laws, and to negotiate further with Weather the terms and conditions under which Weather would be willing to enter into a revised transaction, taking into account that the Shareholder Related Agreements are unlikely to be signed and delivered. The Board has instructed the CEO to bring such revised terms, if any, back to the Board for consideration and approval.
VimpelCom face problems with Sawiris deal (UAE)
Russia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, VimpelCom plans to combine with the telecoms assets of Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian entrepreneur, are in doubt.
VimpelCom’s board is due to meet in Amsterdam on Tuesday to approve the deal, but the mobile operator’s shareholders are privately warning that an agreement may not be reached.
According to sources, the Russian operator could be overpaying for the assets of Weather Investments, Mr Sawiris’ private investment vehicle. He accused Telenor of objecting to proposals for a new shareholder agreement that would accompany the Weather deal.
According to Mr Sawiris, the company has shown extreme courage and extreme flexibility with this transaction. They do not think they gave anybody any reason not to go through with it.
In October, VimpelCom outlined plans to merge with Weather, which owns Wind, Italy’s third-largest mobile operator, and has a controlling stake in Orascom Telecom, the Cairo-listed telecoms company with assets in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
VimpelCom agreed to pay $1.8 billion in cash to Weather, which would also get a stake worth $4.8 billion in the Russian mobile operator. Weather would hold 19% of the voting shares in the enlarged VimpelCom group.
VimpelCom also agreed to assume about $15 billion of debt held by Wind and Orascom under the transaction.
But the Weather transaction has been dogged by uncertainty partly because it will be the first big test of a 2009 peace deal between Alfa and Telenor following a bitter dispute over Ukrainian telecoms assets.
The uncertainty has also focused on Djezzy, Algeria’s leading mobile operator and Orascom’s most valuable asset. Djezzy is supposed to form part of the VimpelCom deal, but Algeria wants to nationalize it.
Seven telcos bid for Telekom stake (Serbia)
Serbia’s Ministry of Finance has announced that seven companies have applied to participate in a tender for the 51% stake in Telekom Srbija being sold by the government.
The seven companies include Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telekom Austria, America Movil, Weather Investments, Turkcell and VimpelCom. According to a statement from the ministry, the seven qualify to participate in the tender and have been given the green light to take part in the next step in the process, which will be to submit a guarantee of payment in order to view Telekom’s sale documentation.
According to State Secretary of Finance Vuk Djokovic, the seven companies will be required to submit binding offers no later than 21 February 2011. If there are several offers, a tender auction will be organized at the end of February.
He stated that the winner will be the company that offers the highest price. The winning firm will have to then obtain the approval of the anti-monopoly commission in Serbia, as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro where Telekom Srbija has subsidiaries. Djokovic expressed the hope that the entire process could be completed by the end of the first half of 2011.
Vimpelcom investor questions Sawiris’ terms
Telenor has indicated, Russia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, VimpelCom, may need to reconsider the price it is paying for most of the telecoms assets of Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian entrepreneur.
Telenor is the Norway’s leading telecoms group and Vimpelcom’s second-largest shareholder. According to Telenor, the US$6.6 billion deal could have to be revised given there was uncertainty about whether three of Sawiris’ assets would form part of the transaction.
Last week Vimpelcom summarized the plans to combine with Mr Sawiris’ private investment company, Weather Investments, which owns Wind, Italy’s third-largest mobile operator, and 51.7 % of Orascom Telecom, the Cairo-based telecoms group.
Weather owes to receive US$1.8 billion in cash and a 20% stake in VimpelCom worth US$4.8 billion under the proposed transaction. However, according to Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Telenor’s chief executive, the deal’s terms might have to be revised if the Algiers government acted on its threat to nationalize Orascom’s Algerian mobile business.
Mr Baksaas supported the Weather deal in principle but said several areas of the proposed transaction would have to be clarified before it could be finally approved by Vimpelcom’s board. It is up to the VimpelCom management to produce those details.
According to Mr Baksaas, the shareholder agreement between Telenor and Alfa placed the responsibility on VimpelCom to resolve any regulatory objections. It meant that VimpelCom might end up not buying Orascom’s mobile businesses in Bangladesh and Pakistan. It was also up to VimpelCom to show the Russian operator could service its higher debt level following the Weather deal.
