While America Movil has officially launched its bid for a large minority stake in KPN, the rumour mill continues to generate stories on possible asset sales at KPN. The latest story from Dutch paper De Telegraaf focuses on its Belgian mobile operator Base, which has reportedly attracted the interest of cable company Telenet. Other reports continue to highlight America Movil's supposed interest in Telekom Austria.
The possibility of further divestments is interesting, as highlighted in our earlier commentary 'Will Blok turn KPN back into a Dutch company?'. We suggested then that E-Plus, iBasis and Ortel Mobile could also be put up for sale. This raises the question, is American Movil interested in just the Dutch activities, or is it really about KPN's foreign operations? Most likely Carlos Slim, the man behind America Movil, is mainly interested in KPN's international mobile activities: E-Plus, Base and Ortel.
Another question is what to do with KPN Mobile in the Netherlands? Should this be seen as part of the international mobile group, or more part of the Dutch company? This is mainly a question of strategic vision, in terms of quad-play (is there a big market for this?), fixed-mobile integration (is this also possible through a MVNO agreement?), Wi-Fi (will this be an important replacement for mobile?) and LTE (is this a full alternative to the fixed line?). It can't be ruled out that the mobile unit may be split off from from Dutch company. This would allow the fixed-line operation to focus on the fixed network, and especially the migration to fibre. It could also compete against KPN Mobile through Wi-Fi and a MVNO, as Ziggo is doing. KPN Mobile could also then use LTE as an alternative to DSL.
America Movil's long-term plans are not yet clear. Is this about acquiring full control or just a cooperation agreement? If Carlos Slim chooses just for mobile, which seems an obvious option, then he could use his 28 percent stake to force a break up of KPN. The stake could then be swapped for 100 percent of KPN's mobile business, and the debt could be split across both parts of KPN. In short, Slim's European adventure is just getting off the ground.
