Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2897)	7/6/2000 2:15:31 PM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Five bidders make no initial offers for Dutch UMTS THE HAGUE, July 6 (Reuters) - Five of six contenders for the auction of third-generation (UMTS) Dutch mobile phone licences made no tenders in a first round of bids on Thursday, news agency ANP reported, in an apparent move to keep prices down. ANP cited Chief Financial Officer Paul Renaud of cellphone operator Dutchtone, among the firms vying for a licence, who also said mobile operator Libertel had bid 100 million guilders for one of the five licences. Skipping the first round would be a strategic attempt by the bidders to keep down the price of a licence. The ministry set the auction price of two of the licences at 100 million guilders each and at 90 million guilders for each of the remaining three. A Dutchtone spokesman could not confirm Renaud's remarks. At the transport ministry, responsible for the auction, no one was available to comment on the information, which is supposed to be secret until the ministry publishes the outcome on its website after 1600 GMT. Moments before the auction, Nogenta Swedish Acquisitions and Hutchison 3G Netherlands pulled out, leaving the six bidders -- five already with mobile phone activities in the Netherlands, plus Dutch telecoms network company VersaTel . "The companies are probably waiting to see what the others are willing to bid," said one analyst. "Obviously this strategy is aimed at getting the lowest price...it's as if they're not that enthusiastic." Initially the finance ministry expected to raise about 20 billion guilders (nine billion euros) from the auction. But given the withdrawals, indicating a strategy by telecoms companies to join forces rather than compete, analysts expect the licences to go for as little as 500 million euros (1.1 billion guilders) each on average. Renaud himself, ANP said, is not actively involved in the bidding that takes place behind closed doors in the Kurhaus, a hotel and conference centre in the coastal town of Scheveningen near The Hague. Of the six bidders, the five already operating mobile telecoms services in the Netherlands are: Dutch KPN Telecom's KPN Mobile , Vodafone Airtouch (LSE: VOD.L - news) 's Libertel , British Telecom (LSE: BT.A.L - news) 's Telfort, France Telecom's Dutchtone and Ben, which is owned by Belgium's Belgacom [BGC.UL] and Tele Danmark and is participating in the auction through 3G-Blue, an alliance with Deutsche Telekom .