Just read an interesting article that says that there has been a surge in merger and acquisition activity amongst telecoms operators in recent weeks, and that they has been a number of "cross border deals across international markets". It says that major deals have been reported in the last week, most notably that Vodafone and Tata Communications are bidding over $1bn for UK based Cable & Wireless Worldwide. This would be a major business transaction in anyone eyes, and we will be watching developments with a keen interest. Other telecoms mergers and acquisitions mentioned include Turkcell considering a $1.4bn bid for Vivacom in Belgium and France, Telecom Orange spending US$2bn on a takeover of Mobinil in Egypt, Telenor of Norway increasing its stake in Vimplecom, and UAE-based Etisalat looking at making further acquisitions.
The report also mentions that many of the global telecoms operators, leading executives and key players in the telecoms world are to meet with investment bankers in London on March 14th at the TMT (Telecoms, Media & Technology) M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) forum on 14th March in London, to discuss future deals and transactions. Shockingly, we haven't been invited, but Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citi, Clifford Chance, Silicon Valley Bank and Tata Communications will be among the major companies speaking at the event. We'll keep you posted.
