Private equity firms Apax and CVC are lining up competing bids for Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile Netherlands unit, it emerged on Wednesday.
Unnamed sources cited by Reuters claimed that Liberty Global, which owns Dutch cableco Ziggo, is potentially interested, and so is Xavier Niel’s Iliad. U.S. buyout funds Bain Capital and Providence are also circling.
The bidders have been asked to submit indicate offers by 16 November, the newswire said.
Rumours that Deutsche Telekom is considering offloading T-Mobile Netherlands first emerged in a Bloomberg report in October. Sources claimed at the time that the German incumbent had appointed Credit Suisse to manage the sale.
If the reports so far are to be believed, T-Mobile Netherlands could fetch between €3 billion and €5 billion.
The company is a pure-play mobile provider in a market that is shifting towards integrated fixed and mobile service bundles.
At the end of the third quarter, T-Mobile Netherland s had 3.67 million subscribers, down from 3.96 million a year earlier.
Meanwhile, as one telco looks for the exit, another is preparing to barge its way in through the entrance.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tele2 announced it will launch 4G services in the Netherlands on Thursday, and stated its intention to shake up the market, which it claims has some of the highest prices in Europe.
Tele2 has been operating in the Netherlands as an MVNO, but it acquired 800-MHz and 2.6-GHz spectrum almost three years ago and has been busy rolling out its LTE network in the interim.
