Buyout Firms Tee Up Banks For TDC Sale: Sources

The private equity backers of Danish telecoms group TDC are meeting banks this month as they look to line up advisers to sell part of their $7.4 billion stake, people familiar with the matter said.

Buyout firms The Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Permira, Apax Partners and Providence Equity Partners are meeting banks in November but might not pick a syndicate to run a share sale until next year, one of the sources said.

The buyout firms bought 88 percent of TDC in 2006 in what was then Europe’s largest leveraged buyout, eclipsed only by KKR’s £11.1 billion ($18.6 billion) deal for Alliance Boots the following year. The remaining 12 percent is listed on the Danish stock exchange.

The private equity firms declined to comment. TDC had no immediate comment.

Based on TDC’s share price, the company is worth about $8.4 billion.

(Reporting by Simon Meads and Quentin Webb; additional reporting by Peter Levring.)