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

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2461)	2/1/2000 10:17:00 PM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Mannesmann May Bow to Vodafone if Orange Shares Added to Offer, People Say By Robert B. Cox, Juliana Ratner and Christine Harper Mannesmann May Accept Less Than 50% From Vodafone, People Say London, Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mannesmann AG may agree to be acquired by Vodafone AirTouch Plc if the German company's investors are paid extra shares in the mobile phone business Orange Plc, people familiar with the talks said. Mannesmann bought Orange, the U.K.'s No. 3 mobile phone company, last year, sparking Vodafone's $172.2 billion hostile bid. Vodafone, the world's biggest wireless company, has always said buying Mannesmann would require the spinoff of Orange to appease regulators. Orange shares would be distributed to Vodafone and Mannesmann shareholders. If Vodafone gives Mannesmann shareholders a disproportionate amount of Orange shares, the Dusseldorf-based company may drop its demand for more than 50 percent of the combined entity, the people said. Extra shares would increase the value of the offer without costing Vodafone control, they said. Vodafone Chief Executive Chris Gent yesterday told analysts that shareholders of Mannesmann, Germany's second-biggest phone company, should take into account the value of Orange shares they'll receive as part of his current offer. ``You could argue that in practice we are transferring more value than 50 percent back to the expanded Vodafone AirTouch and Mannesmann shareholders,' he said on a conference call. Vodafone's offer, which expires Feb. 7, would give Mannesmann shareholders 47.2 percent of a combined company, or 321.39 euros per share ($312.28). Gent, in Dusseldorf speaking at a conference today, said he'd be willing to raise this percentage if Mannesmann agreed to the offer, though not as much as 49.9 percent. Esser Cancels Meetings Mannesmann Chief Executive Klaus Esser today canceled meetings with investors at which he was supposed to discuss the bid, fund managers said. The company didn't explain why the meetings were postponed until later in the week. The Dusseldorf-based company also declined to comment on a New York Times report that several Mannesmann supervisory board members, including Henning Schulte-Noelle, CEO of Germany's largest insurance company, Allianz AG, and Juergen Schrempp, head of DaimlerChrysler AG, had pressed Esser to reach an agreement. The exact amount of Orange that Mannesmann shareholders would receive couldn't be determined, making it unclear how much the offer would be worth. Vodafone declined to comment. ``It's all about the value of the offer,' Mannesmann spokesman Manfred Soehnlein said. He said an offer would have to provide 350 euros per Mannesmann share plus a ``substantial' cash component should the German company receive less than 50 percent in a combined company. Gent has said he won't offer cash unless he found ``some new source of cash that we haven't yet identified.' Analysts have speculated that Vodafone could raise money by selling Orange. Gent said yesterday that Vodafone hasn't made any agreements to sell Orange. Orange Appeal Mannesmann, which paid $42 billion for Orange, plans to remove the company's listing from the London Stock Exchange on Feb. 10. A Vodafone spokeswoman said that if her company acquires Mannesmann it would seek to renew the listing. Analysts expect Orange could increase in value -- and would likely attract a bid from another phone company, such as Royal KPN NV of the Netherlands or France Telecom SA -- if Vodafone spins the unit off. Orange may also increase in value if it succeeds in winning a license to provide improved mobile phone services, known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, analysts said. Thirteen companies have bid for five available licenses. Vodafone said today it applied for a listing on the Frankfurt stock exchange in case it succeeds in its takeover of Mannesmann. The move will make it easier for Mannesmann shareholders in Germany to exchange their shares for Vodafone shares. In floor trading in Frankfurt, Mannesmann shares rose 15 euros, or 5.3 percent, to 296; more than 21.6 million shares were exchanged, compared with a daily average of 8.5 million in the last three months. In electronic trading, Mannesmann shares added 16.05 euros, or 5.7 percent, to 296.3. Vodafone gained 21.5 pence, or 6 percent, to 360p; more than 474 million shares changed hands, three times the daily average in the last three months.