Rebirth of England.

Chapter 758 Greek Telecom
This morning, Barron changed his morning exercise method.

I have to say, Cassandra's recovery ability is still somewhat surprising.

After studying last night, she still insisted on reading with Barron in the morning. She is indeed a good girl who is good at studying...

"How long will you stay in Paris?"

After the room finally calmed down, Cassandra couldn't help but ask.

"It'll only take a day or two. You know, my schedule will be quite busy in the future."

Cassandra was slightly disappointed after hearing Barron's words:

"Can I come to London to see you?"

"Well, of course, but it's better to let me know in advance so that I can arrange the time..."

However, Barron could not guarantee whether he would have time by then, after all, sometimes fast food was only eaten occasionally.

Next, Barron met with O2 Telecom CEO Barry Trelles, who came to Paris from Greece.

"In order to meet the requirements of the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Greek government formulated a plan to privatize some state-owned assets. We successfully won 25% of the shares of Hellenic Telecom (OTE) held by the Greek government. For these shares, we paid 30 billion euros..."

This month, the Greek government finally completed the first round of negotiations with the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and they will receive various aid packages totaling potentially up to 1200 billion euros.

But one of the conditions is that the Greek government needs to demonstrate its determination to eliminate the crisis. To this end, the Greek government will not only significantly cut government spending, but also sell some state-owned assets and privatize them in exchange for funds to make their government debt look better.

Under pressure, the Greek government acted quickly. For example, Peninsula Eastern Group joined hands with China COSCO Group to successfully complete the acquisition of Piraeus Port, the largest port in Greece.

COSCO Group acquired 67% of the shares of Piraeus Port, and the remaining 33% of the port rights were acquired by Peninsula Eastern Group.

In this way, the two sides will cooperate to expand the scale of the Port of Piraeus, increase its throughput, and make it the largest port in the Mediterranean.

The Greek government's sale list also includes a 25% stake in Greece's largest telecommunications company, Hellenic Telecom.

In the competition for these shares, O2 Telecom defeated other competitors and eventually won 30% of Hellenic Telecom's shares for 25 billion euros.

However, after the agreement is reached, O2 Telecom CEO Barry Trelles will go to Germany to negotiate with Deutsche Telekom after meeting with Barron...

Because the current largest shareholder of Hellenic Telecom is Deutsche Telekom, they hope to buy out Deutsche Telekom's shares and thus complete their control over Hellenic Telecom.

In addition to being the largest telecommunications operator in Greece, Hellenic Telecom has a strong position in the communications markets of Southern and Southeast Europe, including Algeria, Romania and Bulgaria.

As early as March 2008, Deutsche Telekom acquired less than 3% of the shares of Hellenic Telecom (OTE) from MIG for approximately 20 billion euros.

After that, through negotiations with the Greek government, Deutsche Telekom gradually increased its shares in Hellenic Telecom to about 35%, becoming the largest shareholder of Hellenic Telecom.

However, it is clear that Deutsche Telekom has had a hard time since the subprime mortgage crisis broke out. In order to repay its debts, it had to sell its American subsidiary T-Mobile USA to O2 Telecom. Now O2 Telecom hopes to further acquire Deutsche Telekom's shares in Hellenic Telecom, so that they will own more than 60% of Hellenic Telecom shares, thus completing the control of Hellenic Telecom and making it a subsidiary of O2 Telecom.

Together with Czech Telecom (now O2 Telecom Czech branch) acquired by O2 Telecom previously, O2 Telecom will have considerable market share in Eastern and Southern European markets.

Deutsche Telekom also participated in the Greek government's bidding for the sale of Hellenic Telecom shares, but ultimately lost to O2 Telecom in the bid. This also shows that Deutsche Telekom is no longer as strong as it once was.

Therefore, this time O2 Telecom still has a good chance of acquiring Greek Telecom from Deutsche Telekom.

Of course, if Deutsche Telekom does not give in, then they can only achieve controlling stake in Greek Telecom by continuing to acquire Greek Telecom shares in the secondary market and acquiring from other small shareholders.

That would inevitably require more money and time, and could only be their last resort.

"If we can complete the acquisition of Greek Telecom, it will generate synergies for our current European business, increasing the number of users while reducing operating costs..."

Currently, the total number of Hellenic Telecom users is around 700 million. If O2 Telecom can complete the acquisition of Hellenic Telecom, then in terms of user scale, O Telecom will become one of the top three telecommunications groups in Europe.

……

Barron's stay in France is longer than previously expected...

After dealing with matters in France, he also helped Eilish Weber with several sowing operations...Barron returned to London in late June.

At this time, Tamaran Ecclestone's due date is very close, so Barron will spend more time with her.

During this period, Catherine Neville was the person who was most often with Tamarin - the relationship between the two began to become close when they were in Australia before.

This was convenient for Barron. When he lived with Tamaran, because of her physical condition, Barron often learned knowledge from Catherine first and then accompanied Tamaran to sleep...

He couldn't help but suspect that it was likely that Catherine would soon have their second child.

"Yesterday, at our northern border, militants crossed the border and attacked the local villages in Kolo..."

Nigel Inkster reported to Barron what had just happened:

"The Kolo Corps reacted quickly and repelled the militants, but the remaining members of the enemy crossed the border and fled to the Benin side. We had to temporarily stop the pursuit, but we have strengthened the local vigilance and reconnaissance."

Hearing this news, Barron frowned slightly:
“Can you confirm whether the Benin military was involved in this?”

"There is no sign of this for the time being, but it is clear that the other party has received some external financial support."

Barron understood that the "external funds" Nigel mentioned were likely to come from France...

“Let Kolo warn Benin and ask them to cooperate in controlling these terrorists. Otherwise, the Kolo Army will not rule out the possibility of cross-border pursuit!”

(End of this chapter)