Apax Partners’ Funds and Texas Pacific group to acquire control of Tim Hellas Telecommunications S.A. in a 1.1 billion Euro transaction
4th April 2005
Apax An acquisition company owned by private equity funds advised by Texas Pacific Group and Apax Partners signed a conditional acquisition agreement today withAn acquisition company owned by private equity funds advised by Texas Pacific Group and Apax Partners signed a conditional acquisition agreement today with TIM International for the acquisition of its 80.87% shareholding in TIM Hellas Telecommunications S.A, the Greek wireless operator.
The purchase price for TIM's shareholding in TIM Hellas is €1,114.1 million, equivalent to approximately €16.43 per share, representing a premium of 17.6% to TIM Hellas' six month average ADR price based on the current exchange rate.
The acquisition agreement is conditional upon, among other things, obtaining approval from the relevant regulatory and competition authorities. The transaction is expected to close by July 2005.
Following completion of the acquisition of TIM's shareholding, it is intended that the remaining shares of TIM Hellas will be acquired at the same price of approximately €16.43 per share, through a cash merger under Greek law.
Philippe Costeletos and Matthias Calice led the deal for Texas Pacific Group. Commenting on the acquisition, Philippe Costeletos, Partner of Texas Pacific Group, said: "We are delighted to be working with this excellent management team led by Mr. Kominakis in establishing TIM Hellas as a standalone Greek company. We remain committed to providing management with the resources necessary to invest in infrastructure, provide innovative products and services to customers, and continue to grow the business. We believe this first significant private equity investment in Greece is an exciting opportunity for the Company and reflects the potential for future investments in Greek companies."
Giancarlo Aliberti, Partner, and Nikos Stathopoulos, Director, led the deal for Apax Partners. They said: "We are pleased to back Mr Kominakis and his team at this exciting time in TIM Hellas' development. This is a great opportunity for Apax Partners to use its expertise gained from years of investing successfully in the telecoms industry to work with TIM Hellas' management to create value and help the company realise its growth potential. We are also excited about investing in a promising Greek market. We look forward to investing in TIM Hellas' future and building on its strengths."
JPMorgan, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are acting as financial advisors to Apax Partners and Texas Pacific Group. Debt financing was provided by JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank.
TIM Hellas Telecommunications S.A. (NASDAQ: TIMHY, Amsterdam: TIMHY) was incorporated in Greece on July 28, 1992 to provide GSM mobile telecommunications services in Greece, in accordance with the provisions of the Greek telecommunications law.
Since February 2004, the company operates under the "TIM" brand name and offers network access and related value-added services. TIM Hellas has been offering full commercial GPRS services since June 2001, and obtained a UMTS license in July 2001.
At December 31, 2004, TIM Hellas had 2.3 million customers. For the 2004 financial year TIM Hellas reported sales of approximately €840 million and operating income of approximately €121 million.
TIM Hellas is traded in NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam.
Apax Partners is one of the world's leading private equity investment groups, operating across the United States, Europe and Israel. Apax Partners has raised or advised approximately $20 billion around the world. With more than 30 years of direct investing experience, Apax Partners' Funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. It pursues a multi-stage equity investment strategy, investing in late venture, growth capital and buyouts.
Apax Partners' Funds invest in companies across its 6 chosen global sectors of telecommunications, IT, retail and consumer, media, healthcare and financial/business services. Apax Partners' Funds investments include Inmarsat, Intelsat, Audible, Dialog Semiconductor, Frontier Silicon, Jamdat, Kabel Deutschland, Sonim Technologies and Yell. For more information visit: www.apax.com.
For further information, please contact:
Juliana Wheeler
T: +44 (0)20 7872 6350
Lorella Cremonesi
T: +39 02 76211 9207
Texas Pacific Group (TPG) is a leading global private equity firm. TPG manages over $15 billion in committed equity capital, and in the course of its history, has completed more than 65 transactions. TPG recently raised TPG Partners IV LP, a $5.8 billion private equity fund. TPG was one of the first major US-based private equity firms to establish a European business and over the past 12 months TPG has invested over $1 billion of equity in transactions with an aggregate enterprise value of $15 billion, including Debenhams, Scottish & Newcastle Retail (Pubs), Grohe, Isola (from Rutgers/RAG) and Eutelsat. TPG's European investments also include Ducati, Findexa and Spirit Group.
TPG holds investments in the technology and telecommunications sector with investments in Eutelsat, Findexa, MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR), Seagate Technology (STX), ON Semiconductor (ONNN), Paradyne Networks (PDYN), GlobeSpanVirata (GSPN), Crystal Decisions/Business Objects (BOBJ).
For further information, please contact:
Owen Blicksilver, Owen Blicksilver Public
Relations
T: +1 (516) 742 5950
For Greek media support please contact:
Nicole Ioannidi, Advocate/
Burson-Marsteller
Tel: +30 210 6971942
Note: Figures in this press release have been converted at an exchange rate of €/$ 1.2914.