Proximus Group to acquire 58% stake in Route Mobile for Rs 5,922 cr

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Belgium-based Promixus Group, through its subsidiary, will initially acquire a 57.56 percent stake in mobile messaging company Route Mobile for Rs 5,922.4 crore in an all-cash deal, according to a regulatory filing.

The acquisition triggered an open market offer to sell 26 percent of Route Mobile subject to regulatory guidelines.

Proximus’ stake in Route Mobile could rise to 75 percent.

“Proximus Group will acquire 57.56 per cent stake in Route Mobile via Proximus Opal, for an initial cash amount of Rs 59,224 million at a share price of Rs 1,626.40,” Route Mobile said in the filing.

As part of the agreement, some of Route Mobile’s founding shareholders will reinvest in a minority stake in Proximus Opal, a subsidiary of the Proximus Group and US-based Telesign Holdings – an affiliate of Proximus.

“Depending on the outcome of the MTO (Mandatory Takeover Offer), the stake owned by Proximus Opal could increase to approximately 75 percent of Route Mobile shares. The total monetary consideration for this part of the operation will be determined by the actual MTO take-up,” the filing said.

The acquisition of a majority stake in Route Mobile and MTO will be followed by a reinvestment of approximately €299.6 by some of Route Mobile’s founding shareholders of up to 14.5 percent of the shares of Proximus Opal.

The reinvestment by some of Route Mobile’s founding shareholders implicitly values ​​Telesign at €1.4 billion, the filing said.

(Only the title and image for this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is generated automatically from a shared feed.)

First published: July 17, 2023 | 5:11 p.m ist