LONDON - The Latin American telecommunications giant América Móvil threatened on Friday to walk away from its proposed 7.2 billion euro, or $9.5 billion, bid for the Dutch cellphone operator KPN after a local foundation moved to block the takeover.
América Móvil, which is owned by the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú, had planned to use the KPN deal as a foothold into the European market, but has faced vocal opposition to its multibillion-dollar offer.
The latest setback came after a Dutch independent foundation connected to KPN announced late on Thursday that it was exercising its right to acquire preference stock in the Dutch mobile phone operator, which would give it just under 50 percent of the voting rights in the company. KPN’s investors must still vote to approve the proposed takeover by the Latin American company.
The foundation, which under Dutch law has the right to block takeovers if it believes they are not in the best interests of the company, said it had taken the steps because América Móvil’s had not informed KPN about its plans before making its approach.
The independent body said it was concerned about the rights of minority shareholders and the impact of the deal on KPN’s employees.
“The foundation believes that América Móvil has knowingly opted for a hostile approach by not first trying to reach agreement on a merger protocol with KPN,†the foundation said in a statement. “As a result, uncertainty has arisen among a number of stakeholders concerning their position.â€
América Móvil, which already has vast operations in both Central and South America, defended its offer on Friday, saying that it had helped to reinforce KPN’s balance sheet and to extract a higher price for the Dutch company’s German subsidiary, E-Plus, which is currently being sold to the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica for around $11.5 billion.
América Móvil has progressively built up a 30 percent stake in KPN over the last year, while the Dutch company’s shares have fallen 48 percent over the last 12 months. KPN’s stock price tumbled 6 percent in morning trading in Amsterdam on Friday.
Despite its large minority stake in KPN, América Móvil said it was “prepared to withdraw its offer†if the foundation continued to block its bid.
KPN said that it had been informed of the foundation’s decision to exercise its rights to the company’s preference shares. A spokesman declined to comment further on the standoff. Representatives for the foundation and América Móvil were not immediately available for comment.
The foundation’s move to block América Móvil’s bid follows Telefónica’s decision earlier this week to increase its cash-and-stock offer for KPN’s German business, E-Plus.
As KPN’s largest shareholder, América Móvil, which competes with Telefónica in Latin America, had been noncommittal about the original deal for E-Plus, which valued the German unit at around $10.7 billion.
Analysts said that América Móvil’s decision to bid for KPN probably played a part in Teléfonica increasing its offer to $11.5 billion, and América Móvil cited its role in the German deal on Friday as proof that it was acting in the best interests of KPN’s investors.
“América Móvil’s efforts allowed KPN to receive 500 million euros more for the sale of its German asset than had been offered by Telefónica,†the company said.
