Carlos Slim's America Movil (NYSE: AMX) wants to hike its stake in Dutch telco KPN, but only as a "long-term" strategic investment, not a takeover, the Mexican telco's CFO Carlos Garcia-Moreno said.
America Movil now holds a 4.8 percent stake, and is looking for clearance from the Dutch markets regulator to jump in and get 28 percent as part of what some believe is a move by the Mexican behemoth into the European market.
"We first have to get a better sense of the market, a better sense of the industry, consumers, generally a better understanding of the industry before we can make other movies," Garcia-Moreno said.
KPN itself took a step in offering that better understanding when it said that America Movil's bid of €8 per share won't cut the mustard because it "substantially undervalues" KPN. For what it's worth--and in these kinds of negotiations that may not be much--the bid is 24 percent higher than KPN's last share price before the bid but way below the peak of €12 that the carrier achieved last year.
KPN is moving towards the tried and true exploration of "strategic options" and has hired Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as financial advisers and Allen & Overy as legacy counsel.
For more:
- see this Telecompaper story
- and this story
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