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PPF raises stake in O2 to more than 83 pct(Czech News Agency Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Updates throughout. Prague, Oct 30 (CTK) Investment group PPF has increased its stake in the biggest Czech telecoms company O2 to more than 83 percent from almost 66 percent which it initially acquired, PPF said in a report for the Czech National Bank (CNB). PPF at first increased its stake in O2 to 73 percent as part of a mandatory buyout offer to minority shareholders and later also bought shares from other shareholders. It acquired, for example, almost 6 percent of shares held by UniCredit Bank. The shares held by UniCredit Bank's clients were not accepted within the mandatory buyout. Server E15 said PPF's stake in O2 had increased to almost 90 percent, a level needed for the squeezeout of minority shareholders. "If this speculation (about a squeezeout) is correct, we cannot rule out PPF's further presence on the market in the future with the purpose of reaching the given limit," analyst Milan Vanicek of company JandT said. "We believe that the potential offering price in the possible squeezeout could be based on the price in the mandatory buyout, most probably influenced by the paid out dividend," Vanicek said. PPF offered minority shareholders the buyout of their stakes at Kc295.15 per share in June. The price of O2 shares dropped to about Kc245 today, the lowest level in almost 11 years. PPF acquired the shares last week already, that is, before October 27 which was the record date for receiving this year's dividend of Kc18 per share, according to brokerage company HB Securities. PPF also said recently it wants to borrow up to Kc24.8bn from O2 to repay the bank loan it took out to finance the acquisition of a majority stake in the operator. PPF, owned by the wealthiest Czech, Petr Kellner, acquired 65.9 percent in Telefonica CR (current O2 CR) and 100 percent in Telefonica Slovakia from Spanish company Telefonica SA in January this year. It paid Kc63.6bn for the stakes. Telefonica has kept 5 percent in O2. kou/er |