TDC Group’s Board of Directors has revealed its intention to withdraw its recommendation for the agreement signed with Modern Times Group (MTG) under which TDC Group would be combined with Nordic Entertainment and MTG Studios businesses, after it received a takeover bid for all of its shares. DK Telekommunikation – acting on behalf of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Europe (MIRA) and three Danish pension funds, namely PFA, ATP and PKA – has submitted a voluntary recommended public takeover offer to buy the entire share capital of TDC for an all-cash consideration of DKK50.25 (USD8.3) per share. TDC’s board has said that this new offer represents improved terms compared to previous non-binding proposals made by the consortium to TDC, while providing a high degree of transaction certainty and not being conditional on due diligence.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, earlier this month TDC Group agreed to acquire MTG Nordics – comprising MTG Nordic Entertainment and MTG Studios – from broadcaster MTG for an enterprise value of SEK19.55 billion (USD2.5 billion), to form what it claimed would be the first fully convergent media and communications provider in Europe. Shortly after, TDC turned down an ‘indicative proposal’ from a consortium comprising Australia’s Macquarie and the three aforementioned Danish pension funds. Following the review of that takeover bid, TDC Group’s Board of Directors concluded that it was not in the best interest of TDC’s shareholders and stakeholders, and it was rejected.