By Sean Carney
PRAGUE--PPF Group NV, the Czech financial group owned by
billionaire Petr Kellner, Tuesday said it hasn't purchased
sufficient outstanding shares in telecommunications company O2
Czech Republic AS (BAATELEC.PR) to require a second buyout offer
for minority shares, and so the stock is set to continue trading on
the Prague Stock Exchange.
PPF Group "has not reached the statutory threshold of shares to
oblige it to make an additional offer for the remaining shares in
the process of the mandatory tender offer," the company said,
without providing specific figures.
Once it completes the evaluation of all notices of acceptance of
the initial buyback offer, some of which haven't yet been received,
PPF Group will release the exact number of shares acquired and
voting rights, it said.
In January, PPF Group bought its 65.9% stake in the company from
Telefonica SA (TEF) of Spain for 2.06 billion euros ($2.82 billion)
outright and for an additional EUR303 million over the following
four years.
In May, PPF Group approved a 295.15 koruna ($14.72) offer for
each outstanding share. However, that was below the then-market
price for the stock and also below the CZK305.63-per-share purchase
price that PPF paid for the company in January, and so minority
shareholders didn't flock en masse to the buyout offer.
PPF Group carried out the buyout of minority shareholders
through its Dutch-registered subsidiary PPF Arena 2 BV.
O2 Czech Republic shares closed down 2.1% on the day at CZK278.1
a share in Prague.
Write to Sean Carney at sean.carney@wsj.com
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