America Movil on Friday threatened to withdraw offer for KPN if the KPN Foundation maintains its current position and seeks to prevent the offer.
In a statement, America Movil said it noticed the announcement by the board of the Stichting Preference Shares B KPN (the Foundation) that the Foundation has exercised the option granted to it by KPN to purchase class B preference shares in the capital of KPN.
America Movil sent warning signals after KPN allowed the Foundation to have more share in KPN. ( America Movil set to buy KPN at EUR 2.40 per share )
The independent Foundation on Thursday moved to block Carlos Slim’s proposed $9.52 billion offer for the Dutch telecoms group, casting doubt over his expansion plans in Europe. Slim’s America Movil holds nearly 30 percent of KPN.
In addition, America Movil has taken note of the announcement by KPN’s Board that KPN has issued 4,258,098,272 preference shares class B to the Foundation, resulting in the Foundation having obtained 4,258,098,272 preference shares class B in the capital of KPN, representing 50 percent minus 1 vote of all issued and outstanding shares in KPN.
“In the event that the Foundation maintains its current position and seeks to prevent the offer from proceeding to the detriment of KPN’s customers, employees and shareholders, and also to the detriment of telecom services in the Netherlands, all of whom America Movil firmly believes will benefit from the offer, America Movil is prepared to withdraw its offer,” said America Movil on Friday.
At present, America Movil is still pursuing the open offer to acquire KPN. There will be a meeting on 30 August to discuss the draft offer. The telecom giant said it is still serious about the offer.
On 9 August, America Movil said it would make a voluntary tender offer in cash to buy KPN. The offer price was EUR 2.40 per share at a premium of approximately 35.4 percent over the average closing price of KPN’s shares on Euronext Amsterdam for the last 30 trading days.
Recently, KPN decided to sell its German subsidiary E-Plus to the Spanish operator Telefonica. America Movil’s efforts allowed KPN to receive €500 million more for the sale of its German asset than had been offered by Telefonica — and accepted by KPN.
