Société Générale (SG) is in negotiations with business
technology services provider Econocom, over the possible sale of
the bank’s technology finance and services subsidiary, ECS
Group.
With business across 17 countries, including
Europe, the US, Africa and China, ECS reported a consolidated
turnover of €840 million in 2009, as well an EBITDA of €28
million.
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Econocom has so far pitched its bid for the
group at 210 million, and will finance this through €120 million of
acquisition debt financing, €30 million of Econocom share issued to
Société Générale, €50 million of bridge financing (to be reimbursed
with a later equity raise) and €10 million of cash from its own
balance sheet.
It is planning to raise some of this finance
from banks BNP Paribas, Fortis and ING.
The acquisition, if successful, would create a
group with total revenue of €1.6 billion and some 4,000 staff, in
which Societe Generale would hold a nine percent stake. In
addition, SG would continue to provide refinancing for the
group.
Jean-Louis Bouchard, the founder of both ECS
and Econocom, and Econocom’s current chairman, commented: “By
combining the ECS and Econocom teams, we could form the leading
European group of ICT infrastructure management, independent from
manufacturers and operators, with the ambition to
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