Mobile network EE which is owned by Orange and Deutsche Telekom are once again considering the option of selling their halves of the company. EE is UK‘s most popular mobile operator with around 25 million customers and could be valued at more than £12bn. They were also the first network to offer the 4G service and last year they reported a turnover of £6.48bn. The company are on track to meet their 2014 targets and raise its earnings margin to 25 per cent.
EE have recently launched a TV service so they can be one of the first to offer all four services; mobile, home phone, internet and now television. This shows the business has no sign of slowing down just yet with rumours circulating that the company may have plateaued.
It is no surprise that the company is looking into the floatation or sale of EE as they previously said they would return to the issue after the summer. They originally considered the situation back in January and it was expected to be the biggest stock market debut of the year.
Deutsche Telekom is currently involved in a long term effort to offload T-mobile US which is making a loss. Deutsche Telekom is also investing in a television service in Germany. Orange is currently after a telecom that operates in Spain but is owned by a British company called Jazztel. Both Orange and Deutsche may prefer a flotation rather then a private equity sale.
Stéphane Richard the chief executive of Orange spoke to the Financial Times about the possible sale or floatation earlier this year.
“On midterm view, the idea is still to open EE to external investors, which might be through an IPO,” he said. “The new chief executive of Deutsche Telekom clearly wants to review this, but we have no specific discussion maybe in 2015/16. We need to do something as the joint venture may not be an eternal choice for both companies.”
EE will possibly come to market in 2015 however no decision has been officially confirmed as both companies declined to comment.
