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

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2500)	2/4/2000 9:26:00 AM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Vodafone confident of final Mannesmann go-ahead Gent said the supervisory board had been unable to ratify the deal on Thursday, because a draft proposal had been unclear about the timing of Vodafone's plans to spin off Mannesmann's non-telecoms divisions. Shortly afterwards, the supervisory board agreed to the fresh bid, which Gent said would lead to modest EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) in the first years but become EBITDA neutral by year four. Gent, who heads the world's biggest mobile phone company, said cellphone assets remained the key purchase priority for the combined group -- which will be called Mannesmann in Germany but Vodafone AirTouch elsewhere -- rather than fixed-line assets. The 180 billion euro ($177.3 billion) bid for its European partner, which is expected to be completed by the end of March, has not sated Vodafone's appetite for acquisitions. Gent said he remained ``reasonably confident' of winning control of Spain's second biggest telecoms carrier Airtel, despite allegations from co-shareholder British Telecommunications Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BT.L) that complex shareholder agreements prevent Vodafone from winning the upper hand. ``We are not over-confident,' he said. "You have to approach this in a sensible and commercial way...but I think we're reasonably confident that we should, in due course, achieve an increased shareholding leading to a control position eventually. ``It will take another month or so,' he added, saying that legal agreements only prevented shareholders from snapping up stakes to a certain level, above which it was ``everyone for themselves.' Vodafone's joint venture agreement with French media and telecoms group Vivendi , struck last weekend, to provide multi access services across Europe and ride an expected explosion of wireless data services on the continent, had helped open the floodgates to a tide of potential offers for business. ``I can tell you my diary is filling up with people who want to do business with us,' Gent said. ``By creating the Mannesmannn alliance, we have become the partner of choice for people who want to get involved with this business and I have a very high quality list of appointments over the next couple of months.' Gent said plans to move deeper into Internet-related services were developing ``all the time.' ``We are obviously in discussions with a number of people...We have one announced arrangement...with Vivendi and there are plenty of other discussion on-going and you'll hear about them in due course.' Asked whether Gent could envisage closer future cooperation with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the boss of News Corp (Australia:NCP.AX - news), he noted that Vodafone already had a deal for News Corp to provide content on Vodafone's interactive platform in the UK. But he added that he would welcome further discussions. ``Obviously I would welcome talks with Rupert and News International regarding expanding the relationship, so yes, I can envisage there would be talks in the future, given we have an existing relationship.' Vodafone said it would also ``keep its eye open' for acquisition opportunities in Asia, and Gent said Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa , which will become one of the biggest shareholders after the takeover, could become a key ally in that continent. Gent added that a ``number of people' had expressed an interest in Orange Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ORA.L), the UK mobile group it will acquire along with Mannesmann. But he said his plans to demerge the business, rather than agree a trade sale, remained unchanged unless regulators dictated otherwise. But as far as European regulatory clearance of the Mannesmann deal was concerned, Gent said he remained confident of early clearance.