Reuters: Private Equity: UPDATE 1-Telenet eyeing joint bid for KPN's BASE -sources

Reuters: Private Equity Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 1-Telenet eyeing joint bid for KPN's BASE -sources May 22nd 2012, 17:22 Tue May 22, 2012 1:22pm EDT (Adds details) By Sophie Sassard and Victoria Howley May 22 (Reuters) - Belgium's largest cable operator Telenet is talking to private equity firms about making a joint bid for BASE, the country's third-biggest mobile phone company, people familiar with the process told Reuters. Blackstone, Cinven, Providence, Bain and KKR are among possible partners, the people said. "Every private equity player would try to team up with Telenet as there is no trade rival that could offer the same synergies here," said a person at one of the interested private equity firms. Dutch telecom group KPN could raise between 1.6 billion and 1.8 billion euros ($2.3 billion) from the sale of BASE, based on 280 million euros of estimated EBITDA for 2012, and multiples of between 5.5 and 6.5 times. KPN is weighing a sale of the Belgian business at the same time as it seeks ways to counter America Movil's tender offer for 28 percent of its shares, which it sees as undervalued. It is not clear whether KPN's broader defence will slow the BASE sales process, in which presentations to potential bidders were initially slated to go out in the next two or three weeks. KPN declined to comment. Telenet, controlled by Liberty Global via a 50.2 percent stake, is reviewing a bid for BASE that would limit its owner's financial contribution by teaming up with a private equity firm, the people said. It is consulting advisory firms Lazard and Goldman Sachs on the matter, the people said. The two banks declined to comment. Telenet markets TV, phone and broadband services to households and companies in Belgium. It holds a mobile licence but has not built a network, and buys minutes from Belgian rival Mobistar so as to offer clients mobile services. If it were to acquire BASE, it could offer its 4.4 million subscribers an all-in-one bundle including mobile calling over its own network. ($1 = 0.7838 euros) (Reporting by Sophie Sassard and Victoria Howley in London, and Leila Abboud in Paris; Editing by David Hulmes) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions