KPN-Odido telecoms tie-up in Netherlands 'unlikely', KPN CEO says

By Gianluca Lo Nostro and Jakob Van Calster

(Reuters) - The CEO of telecoms group KPN said on Thursday that any tie-up with local rival Odido in the Netherlands was "unlikely", after a report last year said private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Apax Partners were mulling a listing or a sale of the mobile operator.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Private equity groups are under pressure from shareholders to deliver returns on their investments after spending billions of euros to buy out companies or acquiring other assets such as infrastructure.

Last November, Bloomberg News reported that Odido's owners were exploring an initial public offering in Amsterdam or a sale this year, after buying it for 5.1 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in 2021.

Odido and KPN have the largest market shares in the mobile segment in the Netherlands.

KEY QUOTES

"Of course we look at the Dutch environment all the time, but Odido made a clear decision to build a mobile network in the Netherlands while staying light on the fixed side," KPN CEO Joost Farwerck told Reuters.

"Consolidating our data from the mobile side will be undoable, so it would only be (for) the customer base," Farwerck said, adding that Odido would likely not want to sell just parts of its business.

CONTEXT

KPN recently acquired parts of EQT-backed Delta Fiber's network via its Glaspoort joint venture, racking up 200,000 households in the Netherlands. The deal is currently under review by the Dutch competition watchdog.

Analysts at KBC Securities said late last year that they saw "the acquisition of additional fibre footprint from competitors" as a potential avenue for KPN's local expansion.

($1 = 0.9616 euros)

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Jakob Van Calster in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi)