Vodafone, world's largest mobile telephony operator in terms of service revenues, might be interested in buying a greater stake in Connex, according to Ted Lattimore, MobiFon's President and Chief Operating Officer.
"Vodafone is certainly entitled to buy more into MobiFon, and so is TIW (Telesystem International Wireless). Both companies increased their stake in MobiFon during the last year," a Connex official told Ziarul Financiar. "Vodafone has never made massive acquisitions, however. They are welcome to do this, if that's what they want, but so far there has been no official contact regarding a possible purchase of more shares," he added. The British operator currently owns 20.1% in Connex.
The brokerage firm Exane Equity Research has recently said it estimates Vodafone to have excess cash in the range of GBP16bn to GBP21bn and identified Romania, Poland, Hungary, France and Italy as regions where Vodafone could be ready to pounce. Vodafone officially expressed interest in Eastern European markets, feeling significant mobile telephony business growth was possible only in this region.
There have been a number of speculations in the past, with Vodafone said to have planned to acquire control over Connex, but none of the rumours materialised. Vodafone, which made a failed bid to purchase US mobile network operator AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (AWE) earlier this year, is expected to present its financial results and investment plans today. Analysts say its revenues went up 10% to GBP33.4bn, while pre-tax profit, before goodwill amortisation and exceptional items, rose 20% from 2002 to GBP 10.1bn.
The Canadians at TIW, who practically control Connex through MobiFon Holdings BV (Netherlands), hold 63.5% in the Romanian operator, after having indirectly increased their stake by buying 13% in ClearWave. "I think they had about 58% towards the end of last year, and bought more in March," Ted Lattimore specified. The third largest shareholder in Connex is Deraso Holding BV, a company registered in the Netherlands, which owns 14.4%.
dan.dragomir@zf.ro
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