Tele Columbus announced its intentions to actively pursue the acquisition of other target companies, following the completion of the acquisition of PrimaCom. For that purpose, the German operator plans to implement a capital increase of EUR 240 million. An extraordinary shareholders' meeting on 14 September will vote on the capital increase.
Without the proposed capital increase, the company would not be able to provide financing for significant further acquisitions under its current structure. An authorised capital is available to the company, which is, however, intended to be primarily used to repay a bridge loan facility, which forms part of the financing of the acquisition of PrimaCom and which will be due for repayment on 15 December. Therefore, only a portion of the authorised capital, if any, would be available to provide financing for further acquisitions or to reduce the debt-equity ratio. Should the opportunity for further acquisitions arise in the near term, the proceeds from the capital increase could be directly used to pay the purchase price.
Shareholders of Tele Columbus shall be granted pre-emptive rights. The subscription price, at which shareholders can subscribe to the new shares, will be determined shortly before the implementation of the capital increase, taking into account the market conditions and share price at that point in time, as well as a discount to the market price appropriate compared to other capital increases with pre-emptive rights. The maximum number of new shares shall not exceed the existing number of shares.
