The Netherlands is one of the most saturated mobile markets in Europe, where five operators battle it out for 13.2 million subscribers. mmO2 has 1.3 million subscribers, or an 11% market share, and is ranked in the bottom three mobile operators. KPN Mobile and Vodafone’s Libertel lead the market, with mmO2, T-Mobile and Orange bringing up the rear.
Analyst valuations of the Dutch unit vary, from 100m euros ($105m) to 300m euros ($317m), through to 1bn euros ($1,05bn) if a bidding war broke out.
mmO2 was spun off from BT Group in November 2001, and is facing shareholder pressure to offload those operations with the least chance of reaching profitability. Few analysts expect O2 Netherlands to reach profitability, and suggest that it will consume roughly $104m cash in the current financial year. For the six months to September 30, 2002, it posted a net loss of 9m pounds ($14.4m) on service revenues of 114m pounds ($183m). mmO2 has wholly owned businesses in the UK, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
Source: Computerwire
