LG makes “too low” Telenet offer

Liberty Global has made a per share offer of €35 for the remaining stake it does not own in Belgian cable operator Telenet.

The European cable giant made the offer despite previous protestations from Telenet that the offer is too low. The Belgian cabler claims independent valuation specialists Lazard put a valuation range for the price per share of Telenet at €37 to €42. Nevertheless, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Binan Investment, LG has made an offer of around US$2.5 billion (€1.9 billion) for the remaining shares, which is equivalent to €35 per share.

In a statement, LG said it disagreed with certain methodologies used by Telenet’s Independent valuation expert, adding that it “believes that an offer price of €35 per ordinary share is highly attractive for Telenet shareholders and provides a meaningful premium to relevant benchmarks”.

It added that the offer represented a 12.5% premium to the September 19, 2012 Telenet closing share price, and a 4.9% premium over Telenet’s all-time high trading price prior to the announcement of the offer.