Greece’s biggest subscription TV provider Forthnet announced on Thursday it had received a joint takeover bid from British Vodafone and its Greek business partner Wind.
Vodafone and Wind, which already own about 39% of Forthnet, have made a non-binding offer for the rest of the shares, offering between 1.70 and 1.90 euros per share. The offer of the two companies values Forthnet between 187 and 209 million euros.
Forthnet, due to the recession and fierce competition, has been suffering net losses for the past nine years. However Vodafone could benefit from the takeover, to better compete with its main rival in Greece, the Deutsche Telekom-owned OTE. Forthnet operates the Nova TV subscription service, which would enable the operators to boost their market share and increase revenue from customers.
In June, OTE made a non-binding bid of up to 300 million euros to buy Nova, however Forthnet reported on Thursday that there was “no significant development.”
Vodafone aims to add fixed services to its existing mobile footprint either through acquisition or by building infrastructure from scratch.
After receiving the joint bid from Vodafone and Wind, the Arab owners of Forgendo, which currently controls 44% of Forthnet, will have to issue a response to OTE’s offer. It is said that the Arabs have delayed their response in anticipation of the Vodafone-Wind offer.
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