Iliad Scraps Plan To Buy T-Mobile Stake

(RTTNews) - French telecoms operator Iliad said Monday that that it has dropped plans to buy a majority stake in T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS), following exchanges with Deutsche Telekom and selected board members of T-Mobile US who have refused to entertain its new offer.

At the end of July, Iliad confirmed its interest in the US market and that it had submitted to the T-Mobile US board of directors an indicative offer to buy a 56.6% stake in the company, which rejected the offer.

Following the rejection, Iliad put in place a consortium with two leading private equity funds and Tier-1 international banks allowing it to improve significantly the terms of its offer by enhancing the cash amount and increasing the share of T-Mobile US' capital to be acquired from 56.6% to 67%.

The new offer, at about US$36 per share, would have fitted into Iliad's strict financial policy in terms of indebtedness and dilution, Iliad noted.