MEXICO CITY: Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil has made a 7.2 billion euro or $9.6 billion bid for the shares in Dutch telecoms group KPN it does not already own, challenging a rival offer for KPN's German business.
Spain's Telefonica last month made an $11 billion bid for KPN's prized German arm E-Plus, casting doubt over America Movil's European investments.
As well as a near 30 percent stake in KPN, America Movil has 24 percent of Telekom Austria and on paper has lost money on both deals.
"On E-Plus, there is a significant risk that America Movil will now block the deal," said Will Draper, an analyst at Espirito Santo.
People close to the situation have said America Movil views Telefonica's bid for E-Plus as too low.
America Movil said on Friday it would bid 2.4 euros or $3.21 per share in cash for the rest of KPN.
That's just under a third of the 8 euros per share Slim paid in May last year when he started building his stake in the business.
The 2.4 euro price is a premium of about 35 percent over the average closing price of KPN's shares for the last 30 trading days, America Movil added.
It values the whole of KPN at about 10.2 billion euros, versus the 8.1 billion euros that Telefonica has bid for E-Plus.
At 0710 GMT, KPN shares were up 18.4 percent at 2.367 euros.
America Movil said it had invited KPN's supervisory and management boards to meet "as soon as possible," to discuss the offer, aimed at achieving "greater operational co-operation and co-ordination between the two companies."
KPN said it had taken note of the offer and was studying it.
"The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board were informed in advance and will carefully consider America Movil's intended offer," it said, adding it would explore all strategic options open to KPN. (Reuters)
