Shares in T-Online rose more than 1.4 per cent today on market talk that parent Deutsche Telekom will have to raise a €2.9 billion offer to buy out minorities in the German online provider.
The stock rose €0.14 at €9.13, beating Telekom's €8.99 cash offer, but still well below a 12-month high of €12.04 set in November 2003. Telekom shares shed 0.9 per cent at €15.09.
Europe's biggest phone carrier wants to buy the 26 per cent it does not already own in T-Online, reining in the Internet service 4 years after selling T-Online stock to the public.
Telekom is offering no premium, paying the price at which T-Online shares closed on Friday, for the roughly 319 million shares in a deal which some analysts welcomed as well-flagged and cheap. They said the creation of a one-stop shop integrating telecoms and Internet services was strategically sensible.
The buyout of T-Online and its subsequent stock market delisting will take a large chunk out of the TecDax where it accounts for some 45 per cent of the total market capitalisation of the 30-share technology index.
Telekom holds 73.9 per cent of T-Online, according to the T-Online website (www.t-online.de). French media group Lagardere is the next biggest shareholder with 5.7 per cent.