WRDP NEWS! AND IT'S HUGE. GETTING $573 million buckeroos!
Energis to Buy Worldport's EnerTel for 352 Mln Pounds
London, Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Energis Plc, Britain's largest
carrier of Internet traffic, said it will buy Dutch
telecommunications network operator EnerTel NV from Worldport
Communications Inc., for 352 million pounds ($573 million) in its
second acquisition outside the U.K.
The purchase price includes 19 million pounds in debt.
Energis will sell 14.7 million new shares in a private placement
with investors and arrange bank loans to pay for the purchase. At
yesterday's closing price for Energis, the share sale would raise
316 million pounds.
EnerTel offers voice, data, video and Internet services to
businesses through its 1,200-kilometer Dutch fiber-optic network
and connections to other European countries. It competes with
former monopoly Royal KPN NV and others. It's Energis' second
Dutch acquisition and the second outside its U.K. home, having
bought Unisource Carrier Services in August for 60 million pounds.
''It's really a mini-Energis, with a similar business
focus,'' said Mike Grabiner, chief executive of Energis. ''EnerTel
will make us the leading alternative telecom operator in
Holland.''
Energis shares rose as much as 91 pence or 4.2 percent to
2,240, helped by British Telecommunications Plc, which climbed to
a record after reporting higher second-quarter earnings.
Rotterdam-based EnerTel's revenue for the nine months ended
Sept. 30 was 28 million pounds after bringing in 17 million pounds
in sales in all of 1998. EnerTel, whose customers include Europe's
No. 3 computer-services company Getronics NV and Internet service
provider Excite At Home Corp., earned 1.3 million pounds before
interest, tax, depreciation and amortization in the first nine
months.
The European market for business telecommunications is
expected to grow to 110 billion pounds in 2003 from 90 billion in
1997, Energis said, citing research from Schema. The Dutch
business telecommunications market is worth 2.3 billion pounds and
growing at 8 percent a year, the company said.
Cash Needed
Energis got a good price for EnerTel because Worldport needed
to sell quickly to repay a $100 million loan due Nov. 18, Grabiner
said. EnerTel was one of few assets left to Worldport, which shut
most of its U.S. operations in August, including its Atlanta
headquarters, after it was delisted from the Nasdaq SmallCap
Market and failed to pay back the loan.
EnerTel, which had attracted 10 bidders, was cheap when
compared with Dutch network operator VersaTel Telecom
International NV, Grabiner said. VersaTel has a market
capitalization of 1 billion euros ($1.04 billion) and lost $10
million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization in
1998. VersaTel's business is similar to Energis' and EnerTel's,
though focused on small and medium-sized businesses.
''Worldport needed to sell,'' Grabiner said in an interview.
''Compared with VersaTel, it's well beneath the traditional
ratios.''
Energis said in a statement it ''continued to grow strongly
in the current financial year'' and earnings are developing in
line with its expectations. The London-based company will report
fiscal first-half earnings on or about Nov. 23.
Dresdner Kleinwort Benson advised Energis and is managing the
share sale, which will start tomorrow. Salomon Smith Barney
advised EnerTel. The acquisition is expected to be completed
within two months. |
