Eircom proposal deadline looms

ONE MORE THING :D-DAY FOR Eircom is just a week away with the various interested parties finalising their proposals.

Singapore-based STT will be a key player in the process while everyone is waiting to see if Denis O’Brien follows through on his initial interest by lodging an offer for the heavily-indebted company.

As it stands STT and the employee Esot, which currently own the business jointly, are preparing to submit a proposal that would involve a €300 million injection of equity into the business.

My understanding is that the Esot would chip in €50 million to the pot with STT stumping up the balance. This money would be made available to the company to invest in the business.

It would also likely involve senior lenders getting a 20 per cent stake in the business and Eircom’s borrowings being shaved to around €2.3 billion from a current level of €3.7 billion.

I understand that a third party could be brought into this proposal, possibly at the behest of the lenders, who hold the whip hand.

Yesterday, Terry Clontz, a senior executive with STT and a board member with Eircom, declined to discuss the detail of STT’s proposal but he did express the hope that the November 18th deadline for proposals set by Eircom’s independent directors would not be extended.

“I think the process has taken too long already,” he said. “It’s not doing the company any good for the process to take this long.”

This is a reference to the amount of time Eircom’s chief executive Paul Donovan is having to spend on this process. It must be a huge distraction to the day-to-day job of running the business.

STT reportedly tabled a proposal in August.

Clontz was also keen to stress that STT invested in Eircom for the long haul and still views it as a good investment that can come right when the Irish economy returns to growth.

It’s a welcome show of faith from an international investor which has a decent track record in this space.

Of course, Denis O’Brien would no doubt prefer more time to get his ducks in a row if he is planning another tilt at Eircom.

Having lost out twice before, O’Brien will want to nail it this time around. Will he seek the support of the Esot, which snubbed him for the Tony O’Reilly-led Valentia consortium some years back?

Will he bring on board another investor to share the load?

How would Eircom and Digicel work together?

We might have a better idea of the answers come the end of next week.