Sonera sells holding in Voicestream to Deutche Telecom for USD 3.7 billion
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July 24, 2000, 8:45 a.m.
Sonera to sell its holding in Voicestream to Deutche Telecom for USD 3.7 billion
Sonera Corporation (HEX: SRA, Nasdaq: SNRA) has decided to accept, for its part, the general offer of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany to purchase the entire share capital of the US GSM operator VoiceStream Wireless Corporation (NASDAQ: VSTR).
- The deal is an excellent solution for all those concerned. The notable proceeds we receive from the VoiceStream shares will improve our possibilities of focusing on supporting the growth of our core businesses, the mobile communications and service businesses, in the future, says Kaj-Erik Relander, Deputy CEO of Sonera.
Sonera is one of the group holding a majority of the shares of VoiceStream that has agreed to vote in favor of the acquisition. This shareholder group has also agreed to retain at least 82.5 % of their holdings in VoiceStream until deal closing, expected in the first half of 2001. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals in the U.S. and European Union, approval by VoiceStream shareholders, and customary closing conditions.
Deutsche Telekom will pay for the shares partly in cash and partly with its own shares. The price paid for one VoiceStream share is USD 30 in cash and 3.2 Deutsche Telekom shares. Based on last Friday's NYSE closing prices (NYSE: DT, USD 51.50 per share) Deutsche Telekom will pay USD 194.80 for each VoiceStream common share. The closing price of the VoiceStream share on NASDAQ on Friday, July 21, 2000 was USD 149.75 per share.
The Sonera Group owns 18,975,773 million VoiceStream shares altogether. Based on last Friday's closing prices, the total price to be paid to Sonera will thus be USD 3,696 million, in the form of a cash payment of USD 569 million and 60,722,474 Deutsche Telekom shares. The Deutsche Telekom shares that Sonera receives as consideration represent approximately 1.7% of the company's share capital. Sonera's has invested in VoiceStream a total of USD 930 million.
- The fact that we sell our VoiceStream shares will not affect our service operations strategy in the US. The USA is a major market for Sonera's developing service and technology businesses, both because of its size and its potential for large number of transactions per subscription, says Relander.
SONERA CORPORATION
Jari Jaakkola
Executive Vice President
Corporate Communications and IR
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