Under terms of the deal, TDC’s largest shareholder is going to sell the bulk of its 42% holding (or at least 69.4 million shares) via a private placement to institutional investors. Based on the share’s closing price on Tuesday, the stake is worth DKK 14bn ($2.27bn).
Shares in the telco fell 8.5% to DKK 188.50 ($30.64) on trading in Copenhagen as of 4.30pm GMT Wednesday.
TDC said it would buy back up to 18 million of its shares from SBC, which would leave it with about 10% of the total share capital.
Copenhagen-based TDC operates in a competitive landscape, but is profitable and has 84% of the Danish landline market, and 34% of the mobile market.
SBC is selling most of its TDC stake to help pay for AT&T Wireless Services Inc, which Cingular Wireless LLC acquired for $41bn back in February. Both SBC and BellSouth Corp are the parents of Cingular, and both have been busy selling off assets to finance the deal.
Soon after the deal was made, SBC announced it was considering selling between 500,000 and 650,000 local telephone access lines for more than $1bn. It also gained some cash when Belgacom SA, Belgium’s dominant telephone company, raised $4.36bn in its IPO. SBC was a shareholder of Belgacom.
