Mannesmann says Vodafone remains ally
LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Germany's Mannesmann, which has agreed to buy British mobile 'phone company Orange Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ORA.L), said it still regarded Vodafone Airtouch (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L) as a key ally despite moving in on Vodafone's home turf.
``Vodafone is a very important partner of ours. The partnership with Vodafone and us relates to the D2 Mannesmann activity in Germany and the Omnitel activity in Italy and the SFR mobile system in France,' Mannesmann Chief Executive Klaus Esser said.
``It is very important for us because of the large further value potential in D2, Omnitel and SFR that we continue the very good relationship we have in relationship to these three properties with Vodafone,' he added in a telephone briefing with Reuters.
Analysts have said any deal with Orange could make joint partnerships in Germany and Italy, which Mannesmann control, untenable for Vodafone. Some have said such a deal might even spark a defensive bid from Vodafone for the German group.
Esser said Mannesmann was paying a total of 33 billion euros ($35.6 billion) for Orange, including the assumption of three billion euros in debt.
In sterling terms, the total value of the deal is some 22 billion pounds ($36.7 billion) -- the share capital valued at 19.8 billion pounds plus debt of around two billion pounds.
Analysts have pointed out that the price per subscriber paid by Mannesmann is some way above what Deutsche Telekom paid when it bought Britain's One2One mobile business earlier this year.
``You have to compare revenue and you have to compare the value of customers,' he said.
``If you...compare the price with EBITDA, the gross earnings, then one can see that this price is very attractive compared to recent transactions done in August in Britain and under discussion in Germany regarding E-Plus,' he said.
France Telecom moved into Germany's mobile market earlier this week when it agreed to buy a controlling stake in E-Plus.
Esser said the focus for the merged groups would remain the European market where he saw the greatest synergies.
($1 equals .5992 Pound) |
