Striking news about the Dutch provider KPN. The Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management is considering launching a takeover bid for the provider together with a number of Dutch pension funds. An actual bid has not yet been made and there have been no formal discussions.
That reports financial news agency Bloomberg today based on anonymous sources. Discussions were said to have taken place between Brookfield and the Dutch pension funds APG Group and PGGM. It is not certain whether the shareholders of KPN will be interested in this and it is also not clear whether there will be an offer at all.
Previous attempt
In the course of 2013, America Movil SAB, the Latin American telecom provider of billionaire Carlos Slim, tried to take over KPN. America Movil is the largest shareholder in KPN, with a value of 16 percent. An independent foundation to protect the interests of KPN’s shareholders prevented this attempt by America Movil from succeeding and, by means of a protective measure, temporarily acquired approximately half of KPN’s shares.
The question is whether a possible takeover attempt will now be successful. It is also not entirely clear why Brookfield and the pension funds are considering launching a takeover bid. KPN currently has a value of ten billion dollars. In order to take over the company, a takeover bid will in any case have to be higher than that, otherwise shareholders will never agree.
But the question is whether this is a good time at the moment. KPN is under pressure from the fierce competition in the Dutch telecom market. VodafoneZiggo, KPN, T-Mobile and Tele2 each compete for the consumer. Tele2 and T-Mobile will soon merge to compete better with KPN and VodafoneZiggo.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
9 hours ago
