Vodafone's Libertel Starts Trading at EU21.10, Above Initial Offer Price
By Adri den Broeder and John Buckley
Amsterdam, June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Shares in Libertel Groep
NV, the Netherlands' second-largest mobile phone company, started
trading at 21.10 euros, above the price set in its initial share
sale.
Shareholder ING Groep NV raised 1.48 billion euros ($1.54
billion) by selling 70.3 million shares in the company at 21
euros each. The U.K.'s Vodafone Group Plc remains the company's
biggest shareholder with 70 percent, while ING retains 7.5
percent of its 30 percent stake.
Libertel is second to former monopoly Royal KPN NV in the
Dutch cellular-phone market. Though three more entrants have
increased competition, Libertel expects to continue to benefit
from growth in the Netherlands, where about a quarter of the
population uses a mobile phone.
''The coming two to three years will be positive for
(Libertel) because they're No. 2,'' said Glaucia Canabrava, an
analyst at F. van Lanschot Bankiers. ''For the other three, it
will be difficult. Libertel is already profitable and the others
are not.''
The company has about 35 percent of the Dutch market and
more than 1.6 million subscribers. It's expecting to benefit when
parent Vodafone completes its purchase next month of AirTouch
Communications Inc. to become the world's largest mobile-phone
company by market capitalization.
Libertel's market capitalization is about 6.56 billion
euros, based on 312.5 million shares outstanding, most of which
are still in private hands. That makes it the 11th-largest
company quoted on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
ING, Europe's seventh-largest financial services company,
sold the shares via ING Barings and Goldman Sachs International.
Excluding commissions, ING raised 1.385 billion euros, ING said
in a statement.
Libertel said investors applied for four times as many
shares as were available. Dutch retail investors were allotted 20
percent of the shares sold, with the remaining 80 percent going
to international institutional investors.
The sale managers have the option to sell an additional 2.5
percent of Libertel's outstanding shares on behalf of ING,
reducing ING's stake to 5 percent. The option runs through July
18.
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