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Technology Stocks : Vodafone-Airtouch (NYSE: VOD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2179)	11/26/1999 9:59:00 PM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Vodafone to increase stake in Airtel By David White in Madrid and Alan Cane in London Vodafone AirTouch is negotiating to increase its stake in Airtel, Spain's second largest mobile telephone company, to more than 50 per cent in a deal expected to be worth at least E7bn ($7.14bn). But the deal would not give the UK operator automatic control of Airtel because of complex shareholder agreements. Vodafone's Spanish ambitions coincide with its E120bn hostile bid for Mannesmann, the German mobile telecommunications and engineering group. The UK group has a stake of almost 22 per cent in Airtel and is in talks to take over the interests of Spain's BSCH bank, which holds a 30.45 per cent share. The remaining stake of a little less than 18 per cent is held by British Telecommunications, which has been in recent talks over a possible increase in its Airtel holding. If Vodafone is successful, it would hold 52.2 per cent of Airtel's shares but could not have control of the Spanish group without permission from BT because of agreements it has with minority shareholders, including the Acciona construction company and a group of savings banks. It is thought that Vodafone and BT intend to manage the company jointly rather than competing for control. The negotiations with BSCH replace a plan, now abandoned, for BT to buy minority shareholders' stakes and redistribute them so it and Vodafone held about 30 per cent each. Deutsche Telekom, Mannesmann's German rival, may be interested in Airtel as part of a counter-strategy against Vodafone, said industry insiders. BSCH would not comment on the negotiations. However, bankers said a share-exchange deal with Vodafone was "65 per cent likely" and might be concluded in the next two to four weeks. Goldman Sachs and Warburg Dillon Read are believed to be advising Vodafone on the Spanish deal.