France Telecom: EUR6.9 Billion Cash, Shares For Amena - Source"
PARIS -(Dow Jones)- France Telecom (FTE) has agreed to buy an 80% stake in Spain's third-largest mobile phone operator, Amena, for EUR6.9 billion in cash and shares, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday.
France Telecom will pay the main shareholders of Amena's parent, telecom operator Grupo Auna SA (AUNA.YY), EUR3.9 billion cash and EUR3 billion in its own shares at an undisclosed guaranteed price for the mobile phone unit, the person said.
That payment, plus Amena's EUR2 billion in debt, values the company at EUR10.6 billion.
The acquisition of Amena is France Telecom's largest deal since buying mobile unit Orange in 2000. It comes after a three-year hiatus from large acquisitions, during which France Telecom integrated its operations and cut around EUR30 billion in debt under French accounting standards.
With Amena, the French incumbent telecoms operator becomes Europe's second-largest provider of mobile phone services behind Vodafone Group PLC (VOD). Amena also places Spain alongside France, Poland and the U.K. as a core market in which France Telecom hopes to gain an edge by offering packaged fixed, mobile and Internet services.
Amena's largest shareholders - Spain's Endesa SA (ELE), Union Fenosa SA (UNF.MC), and Banco Santander Central Hispano (STD) - put their combined stake in Auna on sale in April. France Telecom entered the auction just over a week ago, bidding solely for Amena. The French company outbid its rivals, two private equity consortia, thanks to more than EUR1 billion in tax breaks Amena will yield it. The private equity firms were unable to receive those benefits, people close to the auction have said.
Spanish savings banks who are currently minority shareholders in Auna will hold the remaining 20% of the mobile operator, the person said.
-By Pierre Briancon and Brian Lagrotteria, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 (0)1 40 17 17 55; brian.lagrotteria@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 26th July 2005