Liberty Global is not prepared to raise its price for Belgian operator Telenet because it believes it has already made a full offer, according to Reuters.
Finance director Charles Bracken told a conference in Barcelona organised by Morgan Stanley: “We think it’s a very full and fair offer, it’s a company that we control already so there is no take up premium. So we’re not prepared to raise our price and I think, if there’s any expectation of that, then we should put it to bed because it’s not going to happen.”
Telenet has said Liberty Global’s buy-out bid for the remaining shares of the company is too low. Liberty Global already owns 50.4% of Telenet.
Following LGI’s offer last September, the Belgian operator has asked independent expert Lazard to value Telenet shares. The accounts valued Telenet shares at €37-42, higher than Liberty Global’s bid at €35 per share.
In order to gain support for the deal, Liberty has said the offer will no longer be conditional on attaining 95% of the group.
“We are interested in having as much of this company as we can have so we’ve dropped our condition of 95 percent. So if we end up with 51, 60, 70, 80 or 90, that’s fine with us. And we’d welcome anyone who would want to stay on board.”
