Dutch telecoms operator KPN which last week saw off a hostile take-over bid by Mexico's America Movil, on Tuesday published a net loss of 243 million euros for the third quarter. The dip in profit is mainly related to costs involving the ongoing sale of its German subsidiary E-Plus to Spain's Telefonica, with KPN having to "adjust the outlook to reflect its new group profile excluding E-Plus," it said in a statement.
"We are continuing operations towards our outlook and KPN will have a strong financial profile after the sale of E-Plus," KPN chief executive Eelco Blok said in the statement. Shareholders on October 2 approved the E-Plus deal valued at five billion euros and a 20.5 percent stake in Telefonica Deutschland. Meanwhile, America Movil owned by one of the world's richest men, Carlos Slim, last week dropped its multi-billion euro hostile bid to take over KPN. America Movil's announcement came after two months of intensive wrangling to acquire a majority stake in KPN, which Slim's group valued at 10.2 billion euros ($13.6 billion) when it announced the bid in early August.
The bid came to a shuddering halt however after an independent foundation linked to KPN - one of the largest fixed and mobile operators in The Netherlands and the third-largest in Germany and Belgium - exercised a call option to acquire preferred shares.
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