France Telecom buys control of Equant
- Added:
- Jun 29, 2001
The French telecoms giant will purchase the SITA Foundation's 34% stake in Equant for $3bn and will invest $1bn in cash. The data communications division of Global One, already owned by France Telecom, will be integrated with Equant and it will subsequently have a controlling stake of 54.3%.
Equant has a data network that reaches in excess of 220 countries and Global One's system is spread across 65 countries.
The business services market - including data, voice and the Internet - is expected to almost double by 2004 to around $400bn and the new venture aims to capture a significant share of the global market. However, the battle for business has already proved a wrong turning for the AT&T and BT joint venture Concert, which made a few discordant squeaks before a recent lapse into silence.
With the exception of SITA, France Telecom is offering contingent value rights (CVRs) to all of Equant's shareholders. The CVRs begin trading on Monday and guarantee that Equant's shares will be worth at least 60 euros each in three years - if not France Telecom will pay 15 euros per share to a maximum of 2bn euros.