Vodafone Greece has acquired 72.7 percent equity stake in Hellas Online from the Intracom Group and World Equities Investments Holdings for €72.7 million.
The transaction values HOL at €100 million. The enterprise value will be €311 million including HOL’s adjusted net debt of €211 million.
Earlier, Vodafone Greece picked up 18.5 percent stake in HOL that offers broadband and fixed-line telephony in Greece with 519,000 customers as at 31 December 2013 with market share of nearly 11 percent.
The investment enables Vodafone to become an integrated telecom operator in Greece with the number two market position by revenues in both fixed-line and mobile communications.
Vodafone said it will achieve cost and Capex (capital spending) synergies with an annual run-rate of €24 million before integration costs by the third full year, equivalent to a net present value of approximately €135 million after integration costs. These synergies are expected to be realized from sharing network and IT infrastructure, savings on marketing and bill collections, and rationalization of overlapping functions.
HOL reported revenue of €227.4 million, EBITDA of €68.4 million and Capex of €36.7 million in the twelve months ended 31 December 2013.
Following the transaction, Vodafone Greece would own 91.2 percent of HOL. It will need to make a mandatory takeover offer for the remaining shares in HOL.
