BGAOY - Belgium's Proximus to acquire ~58% stake in India's Route Mobile for ~Euro643M
2023-07-17 05:52:57 ET
Belgium's Proximus ( OTCPK:BGAOY ) ( OTCPK:BGAOF ) is acquiring 57.56% stake in Indian cloud communication platform provider Route Mobile via Proximus Opal, for INR 59.22B (~€643M) (~$721M).
Proximus Opal will buy the ~58% stake from the founding shareholders of Route Mobile at a per share price of INR 1,626.40.
Proximus added that the acquisition of the majority stake in Route Mobile will, as per Indian regulations, trigger a mandatory takeover offer (MTO) for up to an additional 26% of the total outstanding shares of Route at the same price per stock.
These steps will be followed by a reinvestment of ~€299.6M by some of the founding shareholders of Route, for up to 14.5% stake in Proximus Opal — which is a unit of Proximus and the holding company of Telesign, Proximus' US-based affiliate.
Proximus added that taking into account the reinvestment, the net cash consideration for Proximus before the MTO amounts to ~€343.4M.
Proximus said that the acquisition is paving the way for it to become one of the worldwide leaders in the areas of digital communications (CPaaS) and digital identity (DI).
Proximus added that acquisition of Route generates substantial scale, with an annual revenue of around €900M for Route and Telesign combined.
The acquisition will make Proximus the third-largest communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) company globally by messaging volumes, the company noted.
The CPaaS activities of the Group will be led by Rajdip Gupta, the CEO of Route, who will continue to execute his current role.
Proximus noted that the annual run-rate EBITDA synergies realized three years after closing are expected to be at least €90M, which will be realized by Route and Telesign.
The company will fund the deal via bridge financing followed by the issuance of a new bond after closing of the transaction.
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Belgium's Proximus to acquire ~58% stake in India’s Route Mobile for ~€643M