Poland’s Polkomtel Said to Get as Many as Four Takeover Bids
May 06, 2011, 1:44 PM EDTBy Maciej Martewicz
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Polkomtel SA, Poland’s second-largest mobile-phone company, is set to receive as many as four bids from potential buyers, people familiar with the negotiations said.
The bidders include TeliaSonera AB, Sweden’s biggest phone company, a group formed by Telenor ASA and private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC, Polish billionaire Zygmunt Solorz-Zak and Apax Partners LLP, according to the people. They declined to be identified as the talks are private.
The four groups examined Polkomtel’s books and are now considering bids, the people said. Polkomtel in April said that potential investors have until May 6 to place final offers. Spokesmen for Warsaw-based Polkomtel and all the potential bidders declined to comment today. TeliaSonera in February said it placed an initial bid.
Polkomtel’s owners, which include Vodafone Group Plc, oil refiner PKN Orlen SA, copper miner KGHM Polska Miedz SA and power utility PGE SA, are seeking to sell their stakes in the first half. The 2008 sale by Denmark’s TDC A/S of a 20 percent holding provides a 3.7 billion-euro ($5.3 billion) minimum valuation, KGHM said in November.
TeliaSonera, which has units in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, wants to transfer its experience in building mobile broadband and data services if it wins Polkomtel. The company was the first to offer Apple Inc.’s iPhone in the region and currently sells smartphones to nine out of 10 handset customers in Sweden, boosting its mobile data revenue.
Polkomtel, operator of the Plus brand, has more than 14 million customers for basic voice and third-generation wireless services. It competes with Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, and France Telecom SA’s Orange.
--With assistance from Jacqueline Simmons in Paris, Diana ben- Aaron in Helsinki and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in London. Editors: Simon Thiel, Kenneth Wong.
To contact the reporter on this story: Maciej Martewicz in Warsaw at mmartewicz@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
