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

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2521)	2/11/2000 7:47:00 AM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

France Telecom Says It Wants to Buy U.K.'s Orange (Update1) By Daniel Tilles France Telecom Says It Wants to Buy U.K.'s Orange (Update1) (Updates share prices in third-to-last paragraph.) Paris, Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- France Telecom SA, Europe's second-biggest telephone company, said it's interested in buying Orange Plc to strengthen its international business and better compete with rivals such as Vodafone AirTouch Plc. Orange ``would be perfectly complementary with our investment in NTL,' Jean-Louis Vinciguerra, executive vice president for finance, told analysts at a meeting to discuss 1999 sales performance. The company will be ``aggressive' in pursuing the U.K.'s third-biggest wireless operator, he said. Suitors such as France Telecom need to act fast, analysts have said, as pressure to expand their own networks intensified after Vodafone agreed to buy Mannesmann AG for $195.2 billion in stock and assumed debt. The world's biggest wireless company is spinning off U.K. rival Orange as part of the accord. Royal KPN NV, Holland's biggest phone company, could also bid for Orange, analysts have said. Last year, KPN and U.S. phone company BellSouth Corp. thwarted France Telecom's efforts to acquire a German mobile operator when they snapped up E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH after the Paris-based company had agreed to acquire 77.5 percent from Vodafone, Veba AG and RWE AG. Companies such as KPN and France Telecom SA are seeking acquisitions to increase the number of customers they can offer Internet access and other services via their mobile and conventional phones and cable. They also need to bulk up to compete with Vodafone, which will have more than 42 million customers when the purchase is completed. Orange, whose last day of trading on the London stock exchange was Wednesday, had a market value of 30.7 billion pounds ($49.2 billion) as of that date. The company may have its listing renewed by Vodafone. Mannesmann's Orange Buy Mannesmann acquired Orange last year for about 21 billion pounds, sparking the hostile bid by Vodafone, whose wireless operations were smaller than the German company in Europe. Vodafone has always said that buying Germany's biggest mobile operator would require spinning off Orange, the U.K.'s third- biggest mobile phone company and a competitor to Vodafone in its home market, to appease regulators. Orange shares would be distributed to Vodafone and Mannesmann shareholders. Belgium Business KPN and Orange already cooperate in Belgium in what is the country's third-biggest mobile phone service. The Dutch company, which said it has been talking with Orange for about a month, denied last week that the pace of conversations had accelerated in the wake of the successful acquisition of Mannesmann by Vodafone. Orange may increase in value if it succeeds in winning a license to provide improved mobile phone services, known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, analysts have said. France Telecom's international operations received a boost last month when it successfully bought the part of Global One it didn't already own from partners Sprint Corp. and Deutsche Telekom AG for $4.36 billion in cash and debt. Global One, which provides international voice and data services to more than 35,000 business customers, is forecast to break-even in 2002. France Telecom, Europe's second-biggest phone company, said last July it would invest a total of $5.4 billion in NTL Inc. to own as much as a quarter of Britain's largest cable company. The Paris-based company last week raised its stake to almost 14 percent from 12.6 percent as part of the agreement. Share Reaction France Telecom shares were up 3.1 euro, or 1.86 percent, to 170.1 euro ($167.45) in Paris. Vodafone shares rose 12.75 pence, or 3.71 percent, to 356.25p ($5.80) in London, while KPN shares fell 2.2 euros, or 1.8 percent, at 123.3 euros in Amsterdam trading. Vinciguerra's remarks were earlier reported in French business daily Les Echos. France Telecom confirmed that he made the remarks. France Telecom yesterday said that fourth-quarter sales rose 14 percent to 7.5 billion euros, driven by domestic growth of mobile phones. Full year sales rose 11 percent to 27.2 billion euros.