Ben-Dov's Scailex discloses Partner acquisition details

Scailex will pay $1.08 billion in cash and Hutchison will provide a $300 million seller's loan, for a total of $1.38 billion for the wireless carrier.

Scailex Corp. Ltd. (TASE: SCIX; Pink Sheets:SCIXF) today notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) of the details of its acquisition of the controlling interest in Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) from Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (NYSE: HTX; HKSE: 2332). The deal was agreed upon yesterday in Hong Kong, where Scailex chairman Ilan Ben-Dov went to meet Hutchison Telecommunications chairman Canning Fok.

The sale of Partner was made "as is", without any substantial presentations, on the basis of the company's current condition, assets

Scailex will buy Hutchison's 78.94 million Partner shares, amounting to 51.31% of the company, and 49.41% fully diluted, at NIS 67.025 ($17.50) per share, for a total of NIS 5.29 billion ($1.38 billion). The companies set an exchange rate of $3.83/$ for the deal, compared with the Bank of Israel's shekel-dollar representative exchange rate of NIS 3.857/$, set yesterday.

Scailex will pay NIS 4.14 billion in cash ($1.08 billion) when the deal is closed, and Hutchison will provide a sellers loan for the $300 billion balance.

Six of Partner's eleven directors will resign when the deal is closed.

Partner's share rose 0.6% on Nasdaq yesterday to $17.79, giving a market cap of $2.73 billion. The share rose 0.6% in early trading on the TASE today to NIS 68.97. Scailex's share closed at $11.49 on the Pink Sheets yesterday, and rose 2.2% on the TASE to NIS 45.20.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 13, 2009

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009

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