Polish telecommunications group Cyfrowy Polsat plans to acquire more than 18.2 million shares in the IT company Asseco Poland, equal to a 21.95 percent stake. At PLN 65 per share, the total purchase price is almost PLM 1.2 billion.
The acquisition would make Cyfrowy Polsat the largest shareholder in Asseco Poland and able to control the company.
Cyfrowy Polsat proposed to Asseco Poland to start negotiations on a closer cooperation on deploying and serving IT systems for companies of the Cyfrowy Polsat group by Asseco Poland, according to Adam Goral, the founder and shareholder of Asseco Poland. He outlined the investment proposal in a letter to shareholders.
If more shareholders of Asseco want to sell shares, Cyfrowy Polsat said it will arrange participation of other companies controlled by Zygmunt Solorz, the owner of Cyfrowy Polsat group, to acquire the stock.
Goral owns a 9.74 percent stake in Asseco Poland, Aviva OFE Santander holds 14.97 percent, the stake of OFE PZU totals 5.16 percent, and Nationale Nederlanden OFE owns a 5.03 percent stake. Cyfrowy Polsat already owns a 1.05 percent stake in Asseco.
Cyfrowy Polsat's position at Asseco will depend on the number of shares to be sold by other shareholders. Cyfrowy Polsat is looking at negotiating with Goral a shareholders agreement.
Cyfrowy Polsat announced that Asseco Poland could become the main technological partner of the group. In addition, some specialised services from Cyfrowy Polsat could expand the service portfolio of Asseco.
According to the statement, the companies don‘t plan a merger, and they will continue their activities autonomously.
After the announcement, the Asseco share price rose by 10 percent.
The deal was announced after cancellation of an agreement with Huawei on implementation of the integrated IT system by the mobile operator Polkomtel, working under the Plus brand. Plus is controlled by Cyfrowy Polsat.
