Liberty Global will increase its ownership stake in Telenet to 93.23%¹ and will reopen its offer on 24 August 2023
The enclosed information constitutes regulated information as defined in the Royal Decree of 14 November 2007 on the obligations of issuers of financial instruments admitted to trading on a regulated market.
Mechelen, July 19, 2023 - Telenet Group Holding NV (“Telenet” or the “Company”) (Euronext Brussels: TNET) notes the announcement by Liberty Global plc (“Liberty Global”) of the results of the initial acceptance period of the voluntary and conditional public takeover bid by its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Liberty Global Belgium Holding B.V. (the “Offeror”) for all the shares of Telenet that it did not already own or that were not held by Telenet (the “Offer”).
During the initial acceptance period, which ended on 12 July 2023, 34,676,001 shares of Telenet were tendered into the Offer, as a result of which the Offeror will own a total of 101,018,038 shares once the settlement has occurred on 26 July 2023 (the “Payment Date”). Taking into account the 3,500,526 treasury shares already held by Telenet, the Offeror will directly or indirectly own 93.23% of the shares of Telenet.
Payment of the offer price for the tendered shares (€21.00 per share after deduction of the €1.00 gross dividend approved by Telenet’s ordinary general meeting of 26 April 2023 and paid on 5 May 2023) will take place on 26 July 2023.
The Offeror waives the condition of owning, together with Telenet, at least 95% of the outstanding shares in Telenet. Since the Offeror, together with Telenet, will own more than 90% of all Telenet shares following the transfer of such shares on the Payment Date, the Offer will be mandatorily reopened at 9:00am CET on Thursday 24 August 2023. This subsequent acceptance period will close on Wednesday 13 September 2023. Shareholders who have not yet accepted the Offer, being the remaining free float of 6.77% post-settlement, will thus be able to accept the Offer in this period which gives investors who missed the initial acceptance period or those seeking additional liquidity the opportunity to still accept the Offer.
The results of the subsequent acceptance period will be announced on or around 20 September 2023. Payment of the offer price of the shares tendered during the subsequent acceptance period will be made on or around 27 September 2023.
If, following the Offer, Liberty Global, together with Telenet, owns at least 95% of the shares of Telenet and has acquired, by acceptance of the Offer, at least 90% of the shares that are the subject of the Offer, the Offer will be followed by a simplified squeeze-out bid subject to the same financial conditions as the Offer.
As a reminder, the prospectus (including the valuation report by Lazard BV/SRL, which has been appointed as independent expert by the independent directors of the Company, in accordance with article 23 of the royal decree of 27 April 2007 on public takeovers), the response memorandum and the acceptance form are available on the following website: shareholder-offer.be.
In accordance with its obligations under Belgian law, the Board of Directors, with the support of its financial and legal advisors, has reviewed the Offer and assessed the terms and conditions thereof. The independent directors appointed Lazard BV/SRL as independent expert in accordance with article 23 of the royal decree of 27 April 2007 on public takeovers. Telenet’s Board of Directors unanimously supports and recommends the Offer. The Board of Directors has provided its formal opinion in the response memorandum which is attached to the prospectus as mentioned above.
1 This includes the 3.12% shareholding held by Telenet as treasury shares.
This document has been released on July 19, 2023, at 10.35 PM CET