Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (HKSE: 2332; NYSE: HTX) is asking a premium on top of the share price in order to sell its controlling shareholding in Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR). However, the price that Hutchison is asking is not far from the current share price.
The market price of Partner's shares is close to $18, giving a market cap of $1.4 billion. This is up from the $15.5 per share and market cap of over $1.2 billion when negotiations began.
Both Eurocom Group, owned by chairman Shaul Elovitch; and First Israel Mezzanine Investors Fund (FIMI), run by CEO Ishay Davidi, are interested in gaining control of the mobile telephony carrier.
Sources inform "Globes" that Dan Eldar, who was VP for investor relations at Partner when Amikam Cohen was CEO, and the company was founded, is handling negotiations on behalf of Hutchison. Eldar declined to comment on the subject.
Sources close to the negotiations report that a large Chinese corporation recently expressed interest in Partner, but it was not possible to obtain confirmation of this. There are suggestions that the Chinese corporation is not a serious bidder and would also have almost no chance of being approved by Israel's Ministry of Defense.
By law Israeli communications companies are required to have partnerships with Israeli investors, and overseas investors have in the past been disqualified because of this requirement.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 14, 2009
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