mergers, acquisitions and control of francesc trillas...
TRANSCRIPT
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MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND CONTROL OF
TELECOMMUNICATIONS FIRMS IN EUROPE
Francesc Trillas
August 2000
Regulation Initiative (www.london.edu/ri)
London Business School
Sussex Place
Regent’s Park
London NW1 4SA
U.K.
Telephone: +44-(0)20-72625050x3362
Fax: +44-(0)20-74020718
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MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND CONTROL OF
TELECOMMUNICATIONS FIRMS IN EUROPE 1
Francesc Trillas
Abstract
Evidence is presented on twelve large acquisitions by telecommunications firms in
Europe. Although the average effect on acquirers’ shareholder value is not significantly
different from zero, there is high dispersion in the results. This suggests that detailed
studies may uncover important aspects of the constraints that exist in the corporate
control market of telecommunications firms. A case study of the Spanish firm
Telefonica suggests that corporate governance problems and political intervention are
significant components of these constraints.
1 I thank Len Waverman for his comments and encouragement. I received helpful suggestions by
workshop participants at a Global Communications Consortium meeting in London and at a session in the
Conference of the International Telecommunications Society in Buenos Aires. The usual disclaimer
applies.
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1. Introduction
Mergers, acquisitions and corporate control issues have shaken European
telecommunications in the recent past. The takeover of Telecom Italia by Olivetti in
1999 and of Mannesmann by Vodafone in 2000 are examples of such developments.
The objective here is to find patterns of transactions in the market of corporate
control in this period of deregulation2 and technological change. Similar research has
been undertaken for other industries (Kaplan, 2000), such as banking (see Houston
and Ryngaert,1994) or the airline industry in the US (Kole and Lehn,1997).
This paper3 tries to answer the following questions: Did the strategies of large
telecommunications companies in the market for corporate control create value for
their shareholders? Which are the constraints faced by telecommunications firms in
the control market of and what is their impact?
A preliminary answer is provided by presenting evidence on the 12 largest
acquisitions made by European telecommunications firms up to June 2000, and by
presenting a related case study of Telefonica. The case study sheds light on the
corporate governance and political constraints suggested by the diversity of outcomes
in the analysis of the 12 acquisitions. These constraints are difficult to perceive with
2 Deregulation is a common trigger of takeover waves (see Mitchell and Muhlerin, 1996).
3 Other papers analyze mergers and acquisitions from the point of view of antitrust policy. See for
example, Cox and Portes (1998).This type of analysis is beyond the scope of my paper.
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comparartive studies that use averaging techniques. Although there is a wide variety
of cases, on average the acquisitions had an impact on shareholder value that does not
significantly differ from zero.4 The Spanish firm shows that the incentives provided
by stock markets and political constraints both interact in shaping the control
structure of the sector.
The structure of the remainder of the paper is as follows. Section 2 discusses the
theoretical developments that may shed light on acquisitions and control of
telecommunications firms, and it presents a typology of deals, as well as some of the
constraints faced by the potential transactions. Section 3 shows the quantitative
evidence on the effects of twelve large acquisitions on the shareholder value of
bidding European telecommunication firms. Section 4 analyzes in depth the case of
Telefonica. Conclusions are presented in Section 5.
2. The Control Market of Telecommunications Firms: Theory, Typology and
Constraints
Deregulation of telecommunications in Europe has been characterized by the
liberalization of entry since 1998, which coincided with rapid technological change,
the creation of the single currency and the consolidation of the single market. These
important changes in the environment of telecommunication firms change industry
boundaries and the optimal scale and scope of activities (see Laffont and Tirole,
2000). An important difference between Europe and the US is the absence in Europe
4 Sirower (1997) shows how acquirers must face the almost impossible task of achiving synergy levels
that more than compensate for the acquisition premium in order to create value for shareholders. The
same book reviews the previous research on mergers and acquisitions.
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of line of business restrictions. The American control market has been better studied,
both through case studies (Lys and Vincent, 1995) and more general overviews
(Ware, 1998).
The main benefits of mergers and acquisitions in telecommunications are the
achievement of scale through consumer base and scope through convergence or
vetical integration. It may also be beneficial for shareholders, although socially
inefficient, to increase market power. However, mergers and acquisitions may also be
value destroying from the shareholders’ point of view for reasons that are well known
to the empirical literature: agency problems, hubrys, lack of focus (see Oxera, 1995).
Firms may grow beyond their original markets through a variety of transactions,
which may be carried out nationally or internationally. The following is a non-
exhaustive list of potential deals:
-Acquisitions of non-controlling stakes.
-Global Alliances.
-Joint Ventures.
-Spin-off (of the “new economy” segments or of the network assets) plus merger.
-Mergers of equals.
-Acquisitions of controlling stakes.
The following general trend has been observed over time. Until the mid 90s the
usual strategy for the largest companies was to seek Global Alliances. These were
abandoned and in the middle of the decade the most usual deal was to acquire non-
controlling stakes. In the second half of the nineties some attempted mergers of
equals took place, but most of them were stopped for a variety of reasons, frequently
of a political nature. In 1999 and 2000 it can be observed that the acquisition of
controlling stakes has increased in the companies under study.
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However, the market for corporate control of telecommunications firms in
Europe faces significant constraints. Some large scale mergers that where announced
at a time, were not completed due to different kinds of problems, in many cases
derived from political constraints. Here are some examples of failed mergers in the
last five years (that were announced or about which there were intense rumours
according to the Financial Times database):
·Telewest/NTL.
·BT/C&W.
·BT/MCI.
·BT/Telefonica.
·Deutsche Telekom/Telecom Italia.
·Telia/Telenor.
·Mannesmann/Vivendi.
·KPN/Telefonica.
Golden shares and partial public ownership
Except Telecom Italia, British Telecom, Telefonica of Spain and Telecom
Eirearn of Ireland, the remaining incumbent operators of fixed telephony in Western
Europe still have the state as the controlling shareholder at the beginning of 2000.
Spain and Italy, although they have fully privatized their telecommunications
incumbent, still hold a golden share on the companies. This places a significant
constraint on the market of corporate control.5
5 In some cases, the antitrust authorities may place serious constraints on a merger or an acquisition.
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Golden Shares prevent that bad bidders become good targets. In an
unsconstrained control market an acquirer that failed to achieve synergy would run
into difficulties and would become a prey of other acquiring companies. Golden
shares protect potential bad bidders. Partial public ownership also protects potentially
bad acquirers, since governments may value control of the company for political
reasons more than the cash flows derived from selling ownership rights.
There seems to be an asymmetry in that some firms still controlled by the
public sector (through partial public ownership or golden shares) are active acquirers
abroad while their governments keep important restrictions at home. The Spanish
government vetoed the merger betweek KPN and Telefonica and the Italian
government vetoed the merger between Telecom Italia and Deutsche Telekom. In the
US, the market for corporate control also faces important political constraints derived
from interest group mobilization. The constraints in the US, however, have not
stopped a more rapid concentration of the telecommunications sector.6
3. Acquisitions by Large European Telecommunications Companies
Table 1 summarizes the evidence collected about the effects of acquisitions on
the stock price of acquiring firms. For each deal, it shows when it did take place, the
6 The example of DT trying to enter the US mobile telephony market with the acquisition of VoiceStream
(see FT July 24 2000) shows however that political opposition to foreign public control is also present in
the US (and the example is also an instance that some acquisitions by European firms may not be the best
deals for shareholders).
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value of the transaction, and the abnormal stock price return, computed following
standard event study techniques.7
(Table 1 about here)
On average, these acquisitions produced an abnormal return of 2.71% on the
stock price of the acquiring firms, which is not significantly different from zero.8
The variance of the distribution of abnormal returns is high. There are two
acquisitions with a significant negative abnormal return at the 99% level (the two by
Telefonica) and one of them with a significant positive abnormal return, the
acquisition of E-plus by KPN. In all other cases, the abnormal returns are not
significantly different from zero. The t-statistics used to test for statistical
significance are based on the standard deviation of the time series of market adjusted
returns for each security in a way that is standard in the event study literature.
As opposed to other studies that only take into account the announcement
effects, the table reflects the impact on shareholder value of all information released
7 See Fama et al. (1969), Armitage (1995) and Binder (1998).
8 Zero or negative average bidder’s abnormal returns are consistent with two theories of managerial
behaviour. The hubrys hypothesis argues that managers overestimate their abilities and overpay for the
target. The agency hypothesis argues that acquisitions reflect that the optimal size of the firm from the
manager’s point of view is larger than the optimal size from the shareholder’s point of view. See Weston
et al. (1998). The agency hypothesis is further explored below for the case of Telefonica.
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between announcement and completion of the deals, in a way similar to Houston and
Ryngaert (1994).
Dynamic issues
The evidence analyzed reveals that many questions can only be answered taking
a dynamic perspective. For example, some deals are the trigger for other deals. The
takeover of Telecom Italia by Olivetti triggered the acquisition of Omnitel and
Infostrada by Mannesmann. The takeover of Mannesmann by Vodafone triggered the
takeover of Orange by France Telecom. Kaplan (2000) addresses the methodolical
issues that are raised by this. The main implication is that evidence from individual
deals are only partially revealing of the wealth effects on shareholder value.
Two phenomena are worth mentioning in this respect:
1)Bad bidders may become good targets (see Mitchell and Lehn, 1990). For
example, Telecom Italia had accumulated several failed alliances, top management
changes and a messy acquisitions policy before it was taken over by Olivetti in 1999.
2)Firms that have been taken over by acquirers may be divested and the spun off
segments may be important participants in the corporate control market both as
bidders or as targets (e.g. Mannesmann). Viceversa, spin-offs may be subsequent to
acquiring groups of firms in the same segment. For example, Telefonica acquired
Internet companies and then decided to spin-off Terra as a global Internet company.
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Takeovers (see Bhagat et al., 1990), privatization (Joskow and Schmalensee,
1995) and regulation9 interact in determining the ownership structure of
telecommunications firms and the industry structure of the whole sector. The
influence of politics in the history of corporate finance is a well known phenomenon
(see for example Cantillo, 1998).
4. The Case of Telefonica
It is interesting to analyze more in depth the case of Telefonica, because it has
been deemed one of the examples of success in an acquisitions strategy (see de
Figueiredo and Spiller, 2000). Also, because it was under a corporate governance
regime that made it significantly different from other telecommunications operators
in Europe, since it was fully privatized with a highly dispersed shareholding but was
under a 10 year golden share. Telefonica is the first Spanish firm in profits, income,
and equity value. As of 1999, it had 50 million clients in 11 countries (Europe and
Latin America).
I show the impact on shareholder value of its diversification strategy and the
mechanisms of managerial discipline that constraned such strategy. The behaviour of
the company is consistent with the hypothesis that the government was de facto the
large blockholder.
9 According to Sidak and Spulber (1997) the regulatory burdens on the incumbents imposed by the 1996
Telecommunications Act in the US forced them to a spin-off strategy of the value creating segments,
separating the network assets. Similarly, stringent regulation has forced British Telecom to study the spin-
off of its network assets (FT, 28-7-00).
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(Table 2 about here)
Table 2 summarizes data on the three last privatizations tranches of the company. Just
before the last tranch, the government appointed Juan Villalonga as Chairman of the
company (June 1996). Villalonga has stayed in this position until July 2000. It offers
thus an excellent time window to analyze the behaviour of this very significant firm.
The remainder of this section focuses on this period.
After complete privatization, Telefonica's shareholders base widened. A look at
the technical design of 1995 and 1997 POs shows the mechanisms through which this
happened. Both offers included discounts on the final price for small investors (4
percent for general investors and 8 percent for employees). Also, both POs included
fidelity bonuses for small investors: that is, the promise of getting 1 free share for
every 20 shares bought provided that the investor did not sell the shares during one
year after the PO). Rationing was needed in both POs, since small investors demand
was largely in excess of the supply directed to them. The ratio demand/offer was 7.3
in 1995 and 7.2 in 1997.
The previous management of Telefonica had already started a very ambitious
investment activity in Latin America, with controlling stakes in Chile, Argentina and
Peru's largest telecommunications operators when they were privatized. The new
management maintained this policy. However, it shifted international alliances,
leaving Unisource to reach an agreement with WorldCom and MCI.
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The activities of the new management in the media sector triggered accusations
of collusion with the government in its aim to create a media holding to compete with
Prisa, a dominant media holding with important stakes in radio, TV and newspapers.
Beyond the operations of Lycos and Endemol analyzed above, the following table
analyzes previous deals. The abnormal returns are computed using a three day event
window and t-statistics have been computed using the standard deviation of the time
series of residuals using a market model.
(Table 3 about here)
The picture that arises from the data is somehow contrary to expectations.
Investors welcomed the new alliances strategy of Telefonica, namely its agreements
with BT first10 and WorldCom/MCI later (the previous merger between MCI and
WorldCom created the first world provider of Internet services). But they
systematically reacted negatively although not always significantly to direct
investments in Latin America, probably influenced by the turmoil in emerging
markets in the last two years. Investors find more value creation in strategic alliances,
while they discount negatively or at least not positively direct investments in risky
regions that may be motivated by empire-building purposes. There is a positive
reaction when deals (in these cases, not completed) implied control of Telefonica by
10 When Telefonica signed its agreement with BT, this company was in merger talks with MCI. The
takeover of MCI by WorldCom stopped this talks and BT reoriented its alliances strategy, hence
announcing the end of its alliance with Telefonica in February 1998.
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someone else: MCI, KPN. And there is a negative or zero reaction when it was
Telefonica that tried to control.
From this evidence, the most that can be said is that investors may value the
scope economies in a frontier business such as media, but also that some of the moves
into this sector may have been motivated by non-economic reasons. There is probably
a trade off between productive synergies and private benefits from control (which are
potentially substantial in a high profile industry such as media, where these benefits
can additionally be shared collusively with politicians).
In 1999, Telefonica was the first operator in Latin America, being present in
Argentina, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala and Brazil.
In the media sector, it participates in Antena3TV and Via Digital in television, in the
newspapers Expansion and Marca and in the radio network Onda Cero, among others.
In the four years that Villalonga had been Chairman of the company (June 1996
to July 2000), Telefonica had made the transition from being a Spanish telephony
incumbent to become a global operator in the new economy. The company had
international subsidiaries in the Internet sector, in mobile telephony and in media. As
the floatation of the Internet subsidiary Terra in 1999 and its subsequent acquisition
of US Lycos shows, its strategy was to spin off the value creating subsidiaries without
losing control and establish alliances and mergers with the spun off segments.
The fact that the specific acquisition events analyzed failed to create value for
shareholders in a positive and significant way suggests two possible explanations.
The first one is that the new borders of the company had been anticipated by the stock
market participants and its final details did not add substantial new information. And
the second one is that the motivation for most of the deals revealed an agency
problem in the firm. In this case, the managerial team would be interested in
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expansion projects that are not necessarily positive net present value projects for
shareholders, but that may maximize some managerial objective. Next I probe the
effectiveness in Telefonica of the usual mechanisms that the literature has identified
to discipline managers. In case these mechanisms are proved to be ineffective, it will
be evidence of a potential agency problem in the firm.
-Takeovers.
The government announced a 10 year Golden Share on Telefonica on 8/11/96.
The golden share is a departure from the one share one vote rule that implicitly gives
incentives to the government to behave as the main blockholder. On 24/6/97 an
extraordinary shareholders meeting approved defensive measures according to which,
1) a candidate for the Board of Directors must have held more than 1000 shares of
Telefonica for at least three years before nomination, unless 85% of the members of
the Board agree to remove such condition; 2) a candidate to become Chairman must
have held a position in the Board of Directors for at least three years before
nomination, also with the 85% rule; 3) independently of his holdings, no shareholder
can issue votes for more than 10% of the total votes.11
-Board of Directors.
11 Given this restrictions, Crespi and Garcia-Cestona (1999) argue that
“Given the existent dilution for this company, these measures create an added power for the managerial
team. (…) Through these measures, we are breaking the one-share-one vote rule, giving more
discretionary power to managers and seriously affecting the governance of the firm.”
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The appointment of nine ''independent'' directors was also interpreted as a move
to a more controlled Board by the Chairman, Juan Villalonga. In addition to that, a
leaner hierarchy was achieved by eliminating the position of CEO. On 15/1/97
Telefonica announced that coinciding with total privatization it would reduce to 18
the number of Directors.
-Hard core.
Besides the enlargement of the shareholders base, a 'hard core' of financial
investors had been constituted since the mid nineties, although it has been losing
importance over time. Three financial institutions (two banks and one saving bank)
held stakes around 5 percent of total capital: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, Argentaria and
La Caixa.
The hard core of shareholders was kept in place after appointment of the new
management and full privatization. However, these institutions remained passive in
all the changes that undertook the company during these years. They did not show
opposition to Villalonga until the government showed its own opposition in 2000,
first with the KPN merger and subsequently with the forced departure of the
Chairman.
-Large block holders.
The shareholding of Telefonica in 1996 was as follows (El Pais, 27-7-00). The
state had 20.9% of shares. The bank BBV, 5%. The savings bank La Caixa, 5%. The
(at that moment in the public sector) bank Argentaria, 3%. The bank Banco
Santander, 2%. And the savings bank Caja Madrid, 3%. 61.1% of the shares were
dispersed among stock market participants. In July 2000, the merged bank between
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Argentaria and BBV (BBVA) had 9.1%. La Caixa, 5%. Chase Manhattan Bank,
5.06%. Portugal Telecom 1.50%. 79.3% of the shares were dispersed among stock
market participants. The new merged bank BBVA has become the largest private
blockholder, and especially so since the alliance between BBVA and Telefonica to
share products and services in the Internet. The company lacks a technological
strategic investor. The stock market welcomed the alliance with MCI-Worldcom and
the announced (and subsequently cancelled) merger with KPN in May 2000. This
may be an indication that shareholder value would increase with a more active role by
a strategic telecommunications investor. Such a strategic investor does not exist now,
since the alliance with MCI-Worldcom has not have a significant impact in practice.
As it will be seen when we analyze the forced departure of Villalonga, it is the
government who acts as a blockholder in practice, using the threat to use the golden
share and using its especial relationship with the hard core of shareholders.
-The managers’ labour market
When Villalonga was appointed, his background signalled a move to a strategy
focused on the creation of shareholder value. Investors might also have welcomed the
appointment because of political reasons: the close ties of the new Chairman with the
government would be a guarantee for the firm's returns. The replacement by Alierta
in July 2000 (see below) shows that potential alternative top managers must fulfill a
very narrow set of characteristics: satisfy the government, the banks, and be coopted
from the Board of Directors, due to the rules fixed in 1997. Hence, an open market
for top executives in Telefonica does not exist, although predictably Villalonga was
constrained by a broader managerial market that could allow him to pursue his career
in the future.
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-Institutional investors activism.
The internationalization of the company had increased the participation of
European and US mutual and pension funds. However, these funds have not been
active in campaigns to change the strategy of the company or to replace the
managerial team.
-Best practice in corporate governance.
Villalonga had pledged upon appointment to introduce corporate governance
reforms ''including recommendations of the most prestigious reports''. However, the
stock exchange regulator (Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores) has failed to
include Telefonica amongst the firms that fulfill the best practice corporate
governance recommendations in Spain (Codigo Olivencia). However, Telefonica’s
shares are traded in 11 different stock exchanges, including the NYSE. This suggests
that the company is subject to an important degree of financial discipline and
transparency.
-Financial Policy
The most significant change in the recent past has been the new dividend policy
announced in 1998. Telefonica announced that it would not distribute dividends, with
the objective of having more funds available for an aggressive investment policy.
The stock prices reacted positively to the new dividend policy. Increasing cash-
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flow for investment was deemed value-enhancing at that point.12 Telefonica ceased to
be committed to regular payments to external investors to a significant degree. To
this extent, it fits an important condition for the company to be analyzed under the
lens of the “free cash flow theory” (see Jensen, 1986).13
-Incentive pay.
An incentive plan to reward 100 high executives with stock options was
approved in 1997 and it was extended to 450 executives in 1997. All Telefonica’
workers were promised similar plans in 2000, when the plans were being most
controversial in the public opinion.
12 The comparison between Telecom Italia and other European incumbents after TI was taken over by
Olivetti illustrates the costs and benefits of acquisition strategies. TI has adopted a very different strategy
from Telefonica or other incumbents. Its highly leveraged structure after the takeover has the virtue of
instilling strict discipline at TI, not unlike that of a classic 1980s leveraged buy-out.
TI's new management has cut costs, pruned wasteful investment, geared up and made
great efforts to sweat the company's assets, achieving the highest return on capital of all
the big European telecom com-panies. First quarter capital
expenditure was 19 per cent lower than the year before - possibly too low.
(FT: Lex Column: July 16 2000)
13 See also Thompson (1999).
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With the exception of the incentive pay and the pressure of several stock
markets, most of the internal and external mechanisms to discipline the managers in
Telefonica are largely ineffective.
Some of the executives who have left the company argue (FT, 25July 2000) that
“Mr Villalonga's compulsive deal-making and intoxication with success have led to
strategic mistakes - notably, the costly acquisition of a stable of media companies
which they believe could dent future profitability.” The final straw was his inability
to mend fences with the government when Telefónica was negotiating internet
connection charges, local telephone tariffs and liberalisation of the domestic market.
Figure 1 compares Telefonica’s stock price since Villalonga was apponited as
manager with a portfolio of other European telecommunications companies. The
companies in the value weighted portfolio are British Telecom, Telecom Italia,
Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, KPN, France Telecom, Cable and Wireless.
(Figure 1 about here)
This is the relevant benchmark, since European companies face a similar regulatory
context, which distinguishes them for example from their US counterparts. See de
Figueiredo and Spiller (2000) on this. It can be seen that, on average, the Spanish
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company’s performance outperformed the portfolio until 1998, but cannot be
distinguished from other comparable firms in the recent past.
However, it must be borne in mind that comparing stock price performance of
regulated firms for a long period of time does not reflect only managerial ability, but
also regulatory actions and national factors. Nevertheless, this similar performance
suggests that there are more similarities than differences between Telefonica and
other large European telecommunications firms. The incumbents are vertically
integrated firms and they face similar political constraints. Although the specifics
vary according to different institutional endowments, the nature and effects of the
limits to best practice corporate governance are similar.
The replacement of Villalonga14 is a clear example of the presence of political
constraints in the company’s control. Villalonga eventually resigned on 26 July 2000.
His forced replacement is similar to a typical management change forced by a block
14 A few days before the Chairman’s resignation, the financial press argued that the campaign to remove
Juan Villalonga, Telefonica's chairman, was unsettling investors and could harm the company. A coup by
BBVA and La Caixa would signal that Telefonica had other masters to serve.
Looking beyond personalities, the basic problem is that Telefonica has its roots as a Spanish company.
Spain's government and national banks are unwilling to surrender their influence over what is
increasingly a genuine multinational. But surrender they must if Spain's new breed of globally
ambitious companies is to compete successfully on the world stage.
FT: Lex Column: July 18 2000
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shareholder, although in this case the block shareholder is de facto the government,
through the threat to use its golden share and through its relationship with the core de
iure shareholders (see Warner et al., 1988).
Villalonga had been appointed by the Spanish government when the company
had still the state as the largest shareholder in 1996. For a long time, the Chairman
had been understood to be the government’s man in the company, and the hard core
of shareholders did nothing to undermine his powerful position. However, since late
1999, the high profile of Villalonga, the stock options plan and his unrelenting deal-
making, were starting to be politically costly for his political principals. The
government first let it know its disagreement with the stock option plan of Villalonga
and his team, which had caused heavy political upheaval in the run-up to the March
2000 general election. Then it forced changes in the alliance with BBVA in May
2000, which also caused controversy in the run-up to the election, and which was
seen by some as an attempt of Villalonga to protect his personal role in the company.
Subsequently, the government blocked the merger with KPN on the grounds that this
would place the Dutch government as the main shareholder of Telefonica. Finally, the
government encouraged an inquiry by the Spanish stock exchange regulator to probe
whether Villalonga could be charged with illegal insider trading for a minor stock
options operations prior to the deal with WorldCom-MCI two years ago (the probe
found no evidence of irregular dealing). There were rumours revealed by The Wall
Street Journal that ministers were furious because Telefonica were having
conversations with the media group PRISA. Villalonga was eventually replaced in a
board meeting by Cesar Alierta, himself a member of the board of Telefonica and
former Chairman of the privatized tobacco firm Altadis (see FT, 27 July 2000).
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To summarize the constraints derived from the government’s influence, there
was a system of bad corporate governance (too dispersed shareholding, inoperative
board due to weak hard core and “independent” shareholders) driven by the wish to
leave the managerial team a broad room of manoeuvre to pursue government-related
objectives; the golden share prevented the operation of an efficient control market;
the electoral cycle clearly interfered with the operations of the company. The policy
of managerial discretion decided upon privatization eventually backfired to the
government: the managerial team was so autonomous that it no longer served its
political masters. The European Commission had made it clear its opposition to the
golden shares, and the Spanish shareholders were a minority after completion of
Latin American takeovers. The Spanish government wanted to reassert its control
before it was too late.
The company was still successful because it could use its very large customer
base and generous cash flows in Spain and Latin American to pursue an ambitious
expansion policy in the new economy (de Figueiredo and Spiller, 2000) but political
factors still constrained its behaviour, as it has been shown. Such political constraints
should amount to a heavier burden in other companies that do not start with such a
solid starting point.
5. Conclusions
The costs and benefits of acquisitions compensate each other on average for
the 12 largest telecommunications acquisitions in Europe in the recent past. The
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variety of outcomes suggests that detailed company studies may uncover the
constraints that the control market faces and that may prevent it from achieving
results that have positive wealth effects for shareholders. The case of Telefonica
reveals that political constraints play a crucial role in shaping the market for corporate
control in European telecommunications.
In practice, a golden share regime does not seem to be very different from a
partial privatization regime, since the government still operates as the main
blockholder. However, it is probably better some government control than no control
at all.
Newbery (2000) has suggested that public and private regulated firms with
similar industrial structures deliver similar outcomes. First mover advantages (e.g.,
being a vertically integrated incumbent, presence of Telefonica in Latin America) and
regulation, e.g., line of business restrictions, are important determinants of the final
boundaries of the firm and clearly affect the role of the corporate control market. De
Figueiredo and Spiller (2000) convincingly attach a high importance to having a large
customer base and being allowed to exploit it through vertical and horizontal
integration.
The results of this research suggest that:
-There is no evidence of a significantly positive average effect on acquirers’ market
value of the completed transactions in the market for corporate control of European
telecommunications firms.
-Some potentially positive net present value acquisitions are stopped for political
reasons. Many deals that are not positive net present value projects are undertaken
anyway because disciplinary mechanisms to control managers, especially in recently
privatized firms, may be ineffective.
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-The industry seems to be looking for its equilibrium structure in a context of high
uncertainty. Although the overall concentration process may be efficient (due to scale
and scope economies), this does not imply that individual transactions all create value
for shareholders, given that there is a huge separation between ownership and control
in these firms, and that some of them have flawed mechanisms of corporate
governance. This is especially accute in firms that are still under state control or that
have been recently privatized.
European authorities face a trade-off between leaving the control market operate
to better capture the efficiency gains of consolidation (subject to anti-trust policy) or
maintaining some degree of control on telecommunications incumbents. While the
European Commission seems to be pushing for a freer market, the national
governments are still reluctant to give up some (formal or informal) key control
mechanisms.
References
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Table 1
Acquirer Target Dates Value Abnormal
Returns
(t-statistic)
Mannesmann Orange 19-22/10/99 GBP
19.86bn.
-8.88%
(-1.01)
Vodafone Airtouch 6-15/1/99 USD 62bn. 14.29%
(1.65)
Vodafone Mannesmann 13/11/99-
4/2/00
USD 190bn. -10.78%
(-0.51)
Deutsche
Telekom
One2One 29/7-7/8/99 GBP 7.5bn. -1.61%
(-0.17)
Cable and
Wireless
IDC 8/3-10/6/99 USD 572m. -11.36%
(-0.54)
KPN E-Plus 8-11/12/99 USD 19bn. 33.35%
(14.83)
NTL CWC 15-27/7/99 USD 12.4bn. 13.47%
(1.15)
France
Telecom
Orange 24-30/5/00 GBP 31bn. 13.60%
(1.62)
British
Telecom
ESAT 11/1-30/3/00 USD 2.4bn. -7.62%
(-0.37)
NTL Cablecom 13/12/98 USD 3.7bn. 3.26%
(0.66)
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29
Telefonica Endemol 16-17/3/00 USD 5bn. -11.57%
(-3.12)
Telefonica Lycos 16-18/5/00 USD 12bn. -11.36%
(-2.51)
Note: the Abnormal Returns are computed using the standard market model technique with parameters estimated
over the 250-day period beginning 290 days prior to the announcement of each event. The event window varies in
each case, and goes from one day before the first announcement was made until one day after the deal was
announced to be concluded. Sources: Financial Times database, Sequencer.
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30
Table 2
Privatization of Telefonica and Public Offerings
Date Revenues
( 610 Euros)
% capital sold % state-stake
after PO
June 1987 283.7 6 32
October 1995 1,000.2 11 21
February 1997 3,885.5 21 0
Source: Bel (1999)
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31
Table 3
Date Event Description AR
(t)
8/11/96 Telefonica breaks up with Sogecable, with which it had a
strategic agreement to operate in cable TV
1.63
(0.88)
29/11/96 Telefonica reaches an agreement with other corporations,
both public and private, to develop a new digital TV
platform
-2.36
(-1.28)
18/12/96 TISA obtains a 35% stake in Companhia Riograndense de
Telecomunicacoes (CRT) of Brazil.
-0.77
(-042)
18/4/97 Telefonica announces a strategic alliance with BT and
reconsiders its participation in the European Alliance
Unisource
2.70
(1.46)
27/6/97 The European Union rules that the Spanish government's
decisions on Digital TV violate the Treaty of Rome.
**19.3−
(-1.73)
24/7/97 Telefonica informs that it is negotiating the acquisition of a
participation in Antena 3
-1.04
(-0.56)
29/7/97 Telefonica acquires 25% of Antena 3 TV 2.21
(1.20)
8/8/97 Telefonica announces that it will take control of Antena 3
TV and through it of 40\% in the company that has the
rights of the pay per view football games
0.32
(0.17)
14/8/97 The Competition Policy authorities of the European
Commission start an investigation about the participation of
Telefonica in the TV sector
0.04
(0.02)
24/9/97 Telefonica reaches a strategic agreement with the Group
Recoletos/Pearson. Telefonica will acquire 20\% of
Recoletos Compañia Editorial
0.91
(0.85)
6/2/98 Telefonica sells its 39.83% in Compañia Celular de
Colombia, S.A. to the controlling group
-1.27
(-0.69)
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32
9/3/98 Telefonica reaches a strategic agreement with
WorldCom/MCI
**96.3
(2.14)
19/6/98 A consortium participated by Telefonica acquires the
Brazilian company CRT for US$ 1.018 million
-0.98
(-0.53)
22/7/98 Telefonica and Sogecable, the controlling groups of the two
digital TV platform in Spain, reach an agreement to work
for a common digital TV
-0.70
(-0.38)
23/7/98 Telefonica wins the contest for 51% of voting shares of
Compañia Intel from El Salvador
-2.40
(-1.30)
30/7/98 In an auction that took place in the stock exchange of Rio de
Janeiro, a consortium leaded by Telefonica obtains the
operating companies Telesp, Telerj and Tele Sudeste
Celular
*56.3−
(-1.93)
8/9/98 Telefonica buys 100 hundred radio stations in Spain. -1.99
(-1.08)
Note: the abnormal returns have been computed using a market model with a three dayevent window (day before, announcement day and day after). The t-statistics arecomputed using the standard deviation of the time series of residuals.
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33
Figure 1: Telefonica compared to other European telcos