TVN Sale Price May Be 20% Above Market, Fit for Yandex, UBS Says
TVN SA (TVN), Poland’s largest television network, may be sold at 20 percent more than the market price and its Internet unit would be the “best” fit for Yandex NV, owner of Russia’s most-popular search engine, UBS AG said.
TVN was given a “breakup scenario” valuation of 20.2 zloty ($7.18) a share at UBS, which initiated coverage of the stock with a “buy” recommendation. That represents a 20 percent jump from the closing price of 16.9 zloty on July 8. The stock rose 0.8 percent to 17.04 zloty at 2:25 p.m. in Warsaw.
ITI Holdings SA may sell its entire 56 percent stake in TVN, the media company, whose assets include Internet portal Onet.pl, said July 7. Time Warner Inc., Fox Entertainment Group Inc. and Bertelsmann AG are among the companies ITI has approached for the sale, Polish newspaper Puls Biznesu said July 7. The company may also have spoken with France’s Vivendi SA, Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG and Discovery Communications Inc., Parkiet reported on July 8, citing people close to the transaction.
“Onet.pl would be the best strategic fit with Yandex’s existing Internet assets,” Kiran Ganesh, a London-based media analyst at UBS, wrote in a report today.
ITI, advised by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Nomura Holdings Inc., hasn’t made any decisions on a “potential sale” of its stake, TVN said.
A breakup of TVN’s assets, which also include a broadcasting service and a pay-TV service, would be “the most likely scenario” and may attract a higher multiple for the “most highly valued broadcasting business,” Ganesh said. If a “large international corporation” buys TVN, it would also purchase its debt, which would then trade at the same grade as the buyer, he said.
The yield on TVN’s bond due in 2018 was little changed at 7.25 percent today after a 42 basis-point drop last week. The bonds, rated B+ by Standard & Poor’s, its fourth-highest non- investment grade rating, were issued by TVN Finance Corp III AB, a unit of TVN.
To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London on njagadeesh@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
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