České radiokomunikace CEO M. Curin said yesterday that the company is considering acquisitions abroad, citing Antenna Hungaria and the Slovak Radiokomunikacie (owned by Slovak Telecom) as possible targets. Antenna's market cap is EUR 139m, which indicates a market value of the state's 74% stake of EUR 103m. Note that České radio currently generates annual free cash flow of approx. EUR 16m, which is unlikely to substantially change until 2006 when it should begin to receive dividends from T-Mobile CR, its 39%-owned subsidiary. The possible acquisition of Antenna would thus mean substantial leveraging at the company or the need to raise share capital. Also, Cra has already indicated an interest in consolidating the fragmented domestic fixed-line market, which is likely to deliver synergies, though synergy potential between Cra and Antenna seems rather limited at the moment.
Jan Hajek