NTC selects banks for TDC sale

Denmark’s Danske Bank and SEB of Sweden have joined a team of banks to launch a share offering in Danish telecoms operator TDC for its private equity owners, sources told Reuters. Copenhagen investment bankers said the owners were pushing ahead with plans for an initial public offering (IPO) and preparing a prospectus. TDC was acquired by Nordic Telephone Company (NTC) – a private equity consortium including Apax Partners, Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Permira and Providence Equity Partners – in December 2005 in a EUR13 billion (USD17.8 billion) leveraged buy-out deal. Although the firms have not yet fully decided on a complete exit from TDC, full stock market floatation is considered the most likely option and could take place as early as the second quarter of 2010. As reported by CommsUpdate, TDC began finalising a line-up of advisors ahead of an IPO earlier this month. The Danish operator adopted a twin-track process to selecting advisers for the IPO, with local investment banks Danske Bank, Nordea Bank and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken expected to handle Nordic stock placing of TDC, while a group of international banks, including JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, UBS and Goldman Sachs, had also been short-listed.