Deutsche Telekom’s hopes of rasing around €2.2 billion from the sale of its cable assets are looking less likely to be realised, according to an article in today’s Financial Times.
The report cites sources claiming that a consortium comprising Apax Partners, Providence Equity Partners and Goldman Sachs Private Equity will this week table a bid in the range of €1.6 billion to €1.9 billion.
Liberty Media, which had bid around €2.0 billion for the assets, is now thought to be out of the running (see Liberty Out Of Deutsche Telekom Cable Auction, Says FT). In 2001, Liberty made a €5.5 billion offer for the business, ultimately blocked by the German Federal Cartel office (see German Regulators Block Liberty Cable Deal). The vastly reduced offer price in the latest bids indicates the extent to which telecoms market valuations have dropped in the interim period.
Deutsche Telekom has developed a debt reduction plan in which it hopes to sell assets worth between €6.2 billion and €8.5 billion by the end of this year, in order to cut debt from €64.0 billion to €52.3 billion, according to the FT.
