Mobistar acquires the Belgian b2b and carrier activities from KPN

Mobistar is announcing today an agreement with KPN Mobile International B.V. covering the purchase of KPN Belgium Business S.A./N.V. (b2b and carrier activities in Belgium). The agreement includes the purchase of the fibre network, the takeover of business customers and the wholesale activities from the former ‘Versatel S.A.’. The transfer will be effective during the first quarter of 2010 after approval by the Competition Council. The 135 employees of the KPN Belgium Business S.A./N.V. entity will be integrated into the Mobistar Group.

Mobistar purchases 100 % of the shares of KPN Belgium Business S.A./N.V.. The sale only applies to the former “Versatel” division. With this takeover, Mobistar confirms its strategy, which is to continue to invest in the professional market with the objective to reinforce its position.

Thanks to this agreement, the Mobistar network will be extended with 1800 km of fibre network and 2 data centres. This will help Mobistar to provide better service to its existing professional clients and will support its other segments. With this takeover, Mobistar will provide continuity of service to the 9000 existing customers of KPN Belgium Business S.A./N.V.. They will also contribute to an increase of Mobistar’s market share on the fixed-line activities market. Thanks to this agreement, Mobistar will also provide wholesale services to KPN Group Belgium S.A./N.V. for their residential ADSL products.

The purchase of KPN Belgium Business S.A./N.V. amounts to 65 million euro (on a debt and cash free basis) and is subject to approval from the competition authorities. If effective, this transaction will have a positive impact on Mobistar’s revenues and EBITDA as of 2010. The estimated 2009 revenues of KPN Belgium Business S.A./N.V. amount to 48.9 million euro and 10.1 million euro EBITDA.

According to Benoit Scheen, Mobistar’s CEO: “this purchase is in line with our convergence strategy and will enable Mobistar to reinforce its position as a provider of fixed telephony and fix data to the B2B segment. Thanks to the outstanding know-how and infrastructure of KPN Belgium Business S.A./N.V., Mobistar will be able to improve the time to market for the development and the marketing of new b2b products.”

Libor Voncina, CEO of KPN Group Belgium: “Today is a new milestone in infrastructure sharing between the two companies. This new wholesale agreement will further support us to provide new products at competitive prices to our B2C, SOHO and SME customers.”

The works council of the respective companies and the CBFA have been informed of the agreed transaction.