Polish telecoms group MediaTel has agreed to purchase 100% of shares in fledgling Polish mobile operator CenterNet, pending certain conditional factors including due diligence results and shareholder approval. As reported by Polish financial website Money.pl on 16 March 2010, MediaTel is entitled to withdraw from the agreement before 31 May. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, CenterNet is currently 100% owned by the Polish private equity fund NFI Midas Investment, itself 70.97% owned by Roman Karkosik. MediaTel is 66% owned by the NFI Magna Polonia fund, and the purchase is subject to approval from the bidding party’s shareholders as well as the supervisory board of NFI Midas. The agreement sets the price for CenterNet at no lower than PLN260 million (USD89.3 million), but the Warsaw Business Journal says that, in a proposed reciprocal deal, NFI Midas may take over the 66% of MediaTel owned by NFI Magna Polonia to pay for the cellco’s shares.
CenterNet launched mobile services in May 2009 and is building out its own network whilst piggybacking on Orange Poland’s national infrastructure. The MediaTel group includes business sector telco Mediatel 4B (formerly eTel Poland) and wholesale provider Velvet Telecom, whilst it consolidated international IP-based operator Premium Internet and residential telephony provider Elterix in 2008.