Vivendi beats Vodafone for control of Cegetel.

Financial News, December, 2002

Byline: Guy Paisner in Paris

Vivendi Universal has pre-empted Vodafone's offer for British Telecom's (BT's) 26% stake in Cegetel to win majority control of France's second biggest mobile phone operator.The Franco-American media group, which only four months ago was fighting for its survival, recently rejected a [euro]6.8bn offer from Vodafone for its own 44% stake in Cegetel and on Tuesday voted to pay [euro]4bn for BT's stake in the mobile phone operator. As a result of the acquisition Vivendi will own 70% of Cegetel and 56% of SFR, its mobile phone subsidiary, while Vodafone will own the remainder in both groups.

JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) advised Vivendi on the Cegetel transaction. Each bank has an existing lending...

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