Yesterday evening, HOT Telecommunication Systems Ltd. (TASE: HOT) informed the board of directors of Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) that it was withdrawing its acquisition offer. Partner reported this morning that the background to the withdrawal, after substantial progress had been made on an acquisition deal and draft agreements had been exchanged between the sides, was that Partner had requested guarantees from the bank advising Altice (Hot's parent company) and Hot, including a guarantee in the event of Altice not being able to make available a credit line for completion of the deal, and that Altice had been unable to produce these guarantees. RELATED ARTICLES Hot parent Altice bids for Partner Cellcom signs binding agreement to buy Golan Telecom For its part, Altice said that the coronavirus crisis and the declines in the financial markets, together with the prolonging of the negotiations, had caused difficulties in raising the finance for the deal, and that this had led to the decision to withdraw from it. In late January, Altice made an offer to buy all the holdings of Partner's shareholders for NIS 3.6 billion, which represented a 30% premium over Partner's market cap at the time. Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 31, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020
