T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telekom now controls 100% of Polish mobile operator Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC), ending a five year legal battle with the operator’s former shareholders over ownership of the firm.
Deutsche Telekom has reached agreement with French rival Vivendi, the Polish company Elektrim and its creditors (which include the Polish state).
Initially, the German company held 49% of the shares in PTC and in 2005 attempted to exercise a call option for a further 48%, but that was contested by the other shareholders. The German firm paid 700 million EUR for the 48% stake in 2006 and will now pay a further 1.4 billion EUR. Add the remaining 3% of the shares along with various legal costs, and the final price hits 2.1 billion EUR.
PTC is the third-largest mobile operator in Poland with 13.3 connections, trailing market-leading Orange (14.2 million) and Polkomtel (13.7 million). In the first nine months of 2010, PTC achieved an EBITDA margin of 37%, which Deutsche Telekom claimed was “high compared with its Polish peers.”
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]