Swiss Telecom

bealtine

It was rumoured on the radio this morning that a Swiss Telco is interested in buying eircom out...

Any links or naybody got more information on this?

dahamsta

I think bonkey's from Switzerland or in Switzerland, he could probably find out faster than most.

Dub13

Eircom shares soared nearly 8% to €2.19 by 11am on this morings ISEQ after a report in the Irish Independent which said Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telephone company, had contacted the company about the possibility of making a €3 billion bid.

Eircom aside, it was a bad morning on today's ISEQ as fears over the health of the United States also sent a shiver through the London market today.

The ISEQ index of shares plunged by 59.47 to 6830.14, a fall of nearly 1%.

Dragon Oil recorded one of the biggest losses falling over 10% to €2.47. Tullow Oil fell 16c to €3.44.

Construction companies also had a bad day. CRH fell 32c to €22.63, Kingspan fell by 20c to €10.60 and Grafton fell by 7c to €8.38. Abbey and McInerney recorded no change.

The financials all recorded losses on today's ISEQ. AIB fell 13c to €17.87, Bank of Ireland 8c to €3.17, Anglo Irish Bank fell 1c to 11.64 and Irish Life and Permanent fell 2c to €15.10.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/10/06/story224158.html

damien

Media speculation today stated that Swisscom were interested in buying eircom. Eircom have since come out and denied it: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=aPkRMiCN5smM&refer=uk

eircom and the Irish Independent have a very very incestuous relationship due to Dr. Sir Tony O'Reilly. So, it is quite suspicious that the Indo would get this wrong. There's no way in hell this story would have been released without David McRedmond from eircom giving approval.

So, is eircom worth 3BN? Theirt network is crap but 3Bn gives you a lot of access to put down a new network. Digging up every road in the country would cost you way way more than 3BN.

Some light reading:

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2004/03/07/story790162385.asp

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2001/12/16/story348319728.asp

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2004/03/07/story866362985.asp

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/06/08/story685944100.asp

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=35&si=661835&issue_id=6600

bealtine

damien.m wrote:

eircom and the Irish Independent have a very very incestuous relationship due to Dr. Sir Tony O'Reilly. So, it is quite suspicious that the Indo would get this wrong. There's no way in hell this story would have been released without David McRedmond from eircom giving approval.

Thats exactly what I was wondering...anything to do with eircom would have to pass by Tony first...

Flying a kite maybe?

ednwireland

http://www.businessworld.ie/livenews.htm?a=1269752;s=rollingnews.htm

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/10/06/afx2263614.html

these articles also say portugal telecom is looking to making a bid.

good or bed news for us poor saps with line failures?

Mr_Man

Eircom is currently in the process of issuing new ordinary shares to fund its acquisition of mobile operator, Meteor, for over €400m.

M.

SeaSide

bealtine wrote:

Thats exactly what I was wondering...anything to do with eircom would have to pass by Tony first...

Flying a kite maybe?

what possible reason could tony have for printing this story......

bealtine

SeaSide wrote:

what possible reason could tony have for printing this story......

That is the question...

WizZard

Someone else is interested in Eircom and he wanted to give the price a little bump??

SeaSide

give the man a cigar

damien

to paraphrase Bill Clinton...

democrates

Doubt if any of them are going to leave themselves open to insider trading allegations. But you have to wonder where the smoke is coming from. Time will tell.

Mad Mike

bealtine wrote:

Swiss Telco is interested in buying eircom out

Chuckle - I used to work for a Swiss Company and if there are any two nations on Earth whose personalities are destined to clash then it is the Swiss and the Irish. All I can say is God help both sides if that takeover ever goes ahead - irreconcilable cultural differences IMHO.

To be fair I should point out that my experience is mainly with Swiss German and I do realise that Switzerland has several distinct cultural groupings. I also accept I am completely over generalising but I still have painful memories of meetings between my Swiss and Irish Colleagues where both sides were trying hard to find some common ground but it was clear that our perspectives on life were so different that meaningful dialog was out of the question.

SkepticOne

ednwireland wrote:

good or bed news for us poor saps with line failures?

No difference, imho.

I think the attraction for anyone buying Eircom is its still near-monopoly position in the market. This monopoly position means that they don't need to fix your line. As eircomtribunal has pointed out, they are quite happy making money out of you on line rental, dial-up charges etc. and you have nowhere else to go. They would only need to invest in the network if the profit from you was to be threatened in some way.

The attraction to investors is that Eircom operates in an environment with next to no competition and an easygoing regulator with limited powers. This does not look like changing anytime soon unfortunately.

ro2

From the Irish Times:

Shares in Eircom surge 10% on talk of takeover

Eircom shares surged by 10 per cent to €2.24 driven by speculation that another European telecom company is set to bid for the Republic's biggest fixed-line player, write Barry O'Halloran and Una McCaffrey

The speculation was sparked by a newspaper report claiming that Swiss operator Swisscom had approached Eircom in recent weeks with a view to bidding €3 billion for the company.

It came a day before this morning's 11am deadline for existing shareholders to declare that they wish to take up their rights to buy the 313 million new shares that the company will issue today at €1.35.

The rights issue will fund Eircom's purchase of mobile player, Meteor, a deal that still has to win the approval of the Competition Authority.

The company denied that it was in talks with Swisscom in a statement yesterday, saying: "The company confirms that it is not currently in discussions with that company or any other in relation to a possible offer."

Swisscom did make informal contact with Eircom about a possible approach several months ago but talks ended at an early stage, according to sources. The potential approach was made within the last year at a time when Swisscom was actively seeking acquisitions across Europe.

Eircom's share price gained around 10 per cent in Dublin to close at €2.24, and made a similar amount in London.

The actual volumes of shares traded outstripped normal levels of business. In Dublin, 9.4 million units changed hands, double the average for the last three months of 4.8 million.

In London, investors bought close to 23.4 million shares.

The speculation is rooted in the fact that three London brokers, Cazenove, UBS and Deutsche Bank began buying up the rights to purchase the new shares that Eircom plans to issue. Trade in the new units is due to start on Wednesday.

The brokers have been buying "nil-paid rights", which give them the right to buy the new Eircom shares when they are issued. Existing shareholders sell these instruments at a price close to the difference between the quoted price and the issue price.

Trade in the nil-paids was also heavy yesterday, and their price added 30 per cent to close at 90 cent. Anyone who bought them at that price will have to pay a total of €2.25 a unit when they exercise their rights to the new shares on Wednesday.

Nil-paid buyers do not have to declare their interest to the markets, until such time as they exercise the rights. In the case of the Eircom rights they will not have to identify themselves until Tuesday. Yesterday's speculation was based around the proposition that Swisscom was availing of this technicality to anonymously build a stake in the Irish group.

Market watchers were sceptical that anyone intending to bid for the company would go this route. They point out that any buyer has to win over a number of constituencies, and particularly the workers, who hold 21 per cent through the company's employee share option trust (ESOT).

"It's a good way to build a position if you want to launch a hostile bid, but the question here is why?" one said. He argued that it was unlikely that any bidder would move until the Meteor deal has won approval.

Others said they did not believe that there was a deal imminent.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank was highlighted as a possible adviser to a bidder for Eircom. Market reports say the bank's analysts have been restricted from commentary on Eircom, but Deutsche itself did not confirm this.

It would be usual for a bank to restrict its analysts from commenting on a particular company if another part of the bank was advising on a bid for that company. Restrictions could also be applied in some other circumstances, however.

Deutsche does not act as an adviser to Swisscom, although it has acted for German player, Deutsche Telekom.

bealtine

http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=8624-qqqx=1.asp


Eircom is "in play" regarless according to the SBP...

Mr_Man

According to RTE the games have started.

M.

dahamsta

'As a first investment for Babcock & Brown Capital, we see this as a strategic shareholding in a company with robust fundamentals and a positive outlook which is not fully recognised by the market at the present time,' a B&B Capital statement said.

Jesus holy god! Eircom has just about the worst "fundamentals" in the market in Ireland at the moment, and their entire outlook is dependant on a couldn't-be-dodgier balancing act. Why can't these lying sacks of sh1t just fess up and tell people that they're jumping on the bandwagon in the hope of making a few quid out of a takeover down the road? Then everyone can tell them precisely how badly they've fscked up, since only a bigger moron than these morons would buy Eircom right now.