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Fidelity makes buy-out offer for Colt
2015-06-19 09:04:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) Colt's largest shareholder Fidelity Investments has made an offer to take the European carrier private. However, Colt's independent shareholders said the bid of 190 pence per share undervalues the group, and a sale to a third party could achieve a higher price. Colt said the directors' assessment was based on its new business plan, which has been provisionally approved by the board and further details of which will be announced soon. While the independent directors, having been so advised by Barclays, consider the financial terms of the offer not fair to the shareholders of Colt, they also recognised that some shareholders may be interested in accepting the bid. Accordingly the board has made no recommendation to shareholders whether or not to accept the offer. Furthermore Fidelity has stated that it will not sell its shares in Colt before the end of 2016, so the immediate offer to cash-out may appeal to some shareholders. As a result Colt's board said it would convene a meeting of shareholders to consider the offer. Fidelity said its offer gives shareholders a premium of 35 percent on the average share price in the past year. In total its offer values Colt at GBP 1.72 billion.
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Category:Telecommunications