Jules
According to the article below BT may bid indirectly for Infostrada. All around good news for Vodafone. There may be four bidders for the unit. I doubt it will IPO. We will know in a few days either way.
A good write-up in today's Barron's in the European Trader Column. The writer has been bashing Vodafone for months on end and now all of a sudden some real positive words for Vodafone. Jules, Vodafone is going to make many investors millionaires. I have been surprised at the low level of valuation that it has received over this prolonged period. They are poised and ready for the next decade and investors do not seem to notice. Too bad many will miss this boat.
Albacom Mulling Bid for Vodafone's Infostrada, Investor Says
By John Glover
Milan, Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Albacom SpA, an Italian telephone company, is mulling a bid for Infostrada SpA, Italy's second-biggest phone company, an Albacom investor said.
Vodafone Group Plc acquired Infostrada when it bought Germany's Mannesmann AG earlier this year. The British company has previously that it will sell 49 percent of Infostrada on the stock market. Vodafone is also considering selling the entirety of Infostrada to another company for at least $14 billion, according to Italian newspaper reports.
Albacom shareholders are ``discussing'' whether to bid for their larger rival, said Davide Croff, chief executive of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA, Italy's fifth-largest bank and a shareholder in Albacom. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Cernobbio, near Lake Como, Croff added that while there were ``no formal deadlines'' a decision would be made ``soon.''
Vodafone's strategy focuses on cellular telephony, making peripheral traditional telephone and Internet businesses, such as Infostrada. Buying Infostrada would help Albacom gain the critical mass needed to compete with Telecom Italia SpA, the former telephone monopoly, as competition intensifies.
British Telecommunications Plc is Albacom's biggest shareholder. Other shareholders include Eni SpA, Italy's largest oil company, Mediaset SpA, Italy's biggest commercial television company, and Croffe's BNL.
As well as Albacom, there are three other companies -- and maybe more -- interested in bidding for Infostrada, Corriere della Sera reported today, without citing sources. Other potential bidders include Wind SpA, a unit of Enel SpA, Italy's largest electricity utility, Deutsche Telekom AG and U.S. telephone company Worldcom Inc., the paper said.
Vodafone has given interested parties until Sept. 6 to decide whether to bid, the newspaper reported, citing ``sources very close to the group.'' The Corriere added that Vodafone hopes the sale will raise more than 30 trillion lire ($14 billion), to help it pay for new cellular telephone licenses across Europe.
Enel Chairman Chicco Testa, who was attending the same meeting as Croff, declined comment on Wind's plans for Vodafone. |
