scoobystu2
09-12-2005, 06:28 AM
Sir Richard Branson threw the planned deal between Virgin Mobile and NTL into disarray yesterday after implying that if NTL upped its offer from 323p to 360p the Virgin Mobile board would accept the deal.
His comments in an early morning BBC Radio Five Live interview upset the board of Virgin Mobile and NTL. Earlier, Virgin Mobile's board rejected NTL's offer as it "materially undervalued" the telecoms group.
Sir Richard - despite owning 72pc of Virgin Mobile - has left all the negotiations to the board, headed by Charles Gurassa. He said: "We've got shareholders in Virgin Mobile and their interests have to be protected." Any price was a matter for the board and NTL, he claimed.
However, he immediately contradicted this neutral tone, by saying: "We're talking about a £25m difference between what the independent directors are talking about and what NTL have offered."
Every 10p extra on the bid price would raise the value of the minority stake by about £7m. So adding £25m would mean raising the bid by about 36p.
Following Sir Richard's remarks, the Virgin Board issued a statement saying: "The Board did not consider any other price, nor did it solicit any other price."
Ref:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/12/09/cnbrans09.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/12/09/ixcitytop.html
His comments in an early morning BBC Radio Five Live interview upset the board of Virgin Mobile and NTL. Earlier, Virgin Mobile's board rejected NTL's offer as it "materially undervalued" the telecoms group.
Sir Richard - despite owning 72pc of Virgin Mobile - has left all the negotiations to the board, headed by Charles Gurassa. He said: "We've got shareholders in Virgin Mobile and their interests have to be protected." Any price was a matter for the board and NTL, he claimed.
However, he immediately contradicted this neutral tone, by saying: "We're talking about a £25m difference between what the independent directors are talking about and what NTL have offered."
Every 10p extra on the bid price would raise the value of the minority stake by about £7m. So adding £25m would mean raising the bid by about 36p.
Following Sir Richard's remarks, the Virgin Board issued a statement saying: "The Board did not consider any other price, nor did it solicit any other price."
Ref:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/12/09/cnbrans09.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/12/09/ixcitytop.html