US firm is offering €21 per share for the outstanding 6.57% stake as its own share price falls
Belgium’s Telenet is reopening the acceptance period for Liberty Global’s offer to buy out all remaining minority shares in the group. The reopening is a mandatory part of the voluntary takeover: the initial acceptance period finished in July.
The minority stakeholders have until 13 September to accept the US telecoms group’s offer of €21 per share. Liberty Global currently holds 93.43% of Telenet’s shares.
Second time lucky?
The re-opening gives investors “who missed the initial acceptance period or those seeking additional liquidity the opportunity to still accept the Offer,” the statement says. The results of this new acceptance period will be announced on or before 20 September 2023 and payment made at the offer price for shares tendered during the period by 27 September 2023 at the latest.
Falling share price
Meanwhile, Yahoo! finance speculates on whether the fall in Liberty Global’s share price can be halted – they have lost 2.3% since its earnings report a month ago. While this is outperforming the S&P 500, its operating loss for Q2 2023 amounted to $511.3 million, a fall of 122.4% year on year.
Outsourcing Horizon
Last week Liberty Global agreed a €1.5 billion outsourcing contract under which Infosys will operate and develop the operator group’s core entertainment and connectivity software platform, Horizon, for the next five years.
The two already had a three-year arrangement in place for Infosys to run core operational IT services.
Under the new deal, Infosys itself can license Horizon to telcos and other companies, with the Indian supplier packaging services around it.
More than 400 Liberty Global IT staff will move to Infosys in a contract which includes an option to extent the five-year deal by another three, which would take the deal value to €2.3 billion. Employees involved are in locations including the Netherlands and UK.