América Móvil is already the fourth largest telecommunications company in the world. Carlos Slim, its billionaire owner and the richest man in the world, is angling to expand his holdings into Europe. His telecommunications giant announced on Friday its intention to make an offer for the Dutch company Royal KPN in a transaction which values KPN at about $13.72 billion. Slim already possesses a 29.77 percent stake in KPN as well as a minority stake in Telekom Austria AG, according to the Wall Street Journal. And his América Móvil dominates the market in Latin America, where it is by far the largest mobile phone operator. Now it is positioning itself to compete with the Spanish company Telefónica SA for a share of Europe.
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"After over a year since its initial investment in KPN, América Móvil hopes to acquire by means of the Offer a majority stake in KPN in order to facilitate greater operational cooperation and coordination between the two companies, to exploit all areas for possible partnerships and to intensify the execution of synergies to the benefit of both companies," said the company in a press release, according to CNN Expansion.
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If Royal KPN accepts, Slim's company would pay some 7.2 billion euro ($9.6 billion) for the 70 percent it doesn't already own. It would offer about $3.20 a share in cash, which is a 35.4 percent premium over the average price of KPN's shares over the last 30 trading days.
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América Móvil may have been forced into the deal by Telefónica, its chief rival in Europe. The Spanish company made a $11 billion offer last month to buy one of KPN's important holdings -- Germany's E-Plus -- which would pose a significant threat to the Mexican telecommunications company's control in Europe. Reuters reports that some people close to América Móvil say the company see Telefónica's offer to KPN as being too low and easily thwarted by anti-trust regulation, which has fueled speculation that it could move to appeal for the deal to be blocked or push for a higher price.
América Móvil and Telefónica own about 60 percent of the Latin American market in telecommunications. Slim had recently seen his call for the California Fair Practices Commission -- an independent body enforcing the state's campaign and lobbying finance laws -- to investigate lobby group Two Countries, One Voice denied by the Commission. The magnate had argued that the group, which has launched protests against him and his companies for what it says are exploitive high prices on Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the US who want to call home to Mexico using his company's services.
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