[Everything Goes]

A group of several private equity firms, including KKR, Apax Partners, Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners, are once again reported to be preparing a £10bn takeover bid for the 4G offering UK mobile network operator EE (Everything Everywhere).

The alleged move, which was spotted by the FT, closely mirrors a similar takeover bid that surfaced in June last year and was at the time said to be worth between £6.4bn-£8bn. It’s understood that to make such an offer more attractive the group would, aside from upping the bid, now also be willing to let EE’s parents (France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom) hold on to a stake worth 15-20%.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php...p10bn-bid.html

[Thine Wonk]

As per my post a while ago this has been tipped for a while http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...50&postcount=5

Back in November analysts said EE and O2 as likely IPOs or to change ownership in 2013.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...kles-debt.html

Quote:

“Why would you IPO O2 in Germany and not O2 in the UK? The reason Telefonica floated O2 Deutschland first was because it thought it could get a better result, but Telefonica is still nowhere near where it needs to be in terms of debt reduction,” he said.

Last week, the chief financial officer of France Telecom, which owns a 50pc stake in EE, said there “could be some space at the end of next year” for an IPO of part of the British mobile company.

So EE is very likely to either be sold to private equity or IPO'd at the end of the year.