Belgium's Proximus to acquire majority stake in Route Mobile for up to ₹8598 crore
₹5,922 crore through a 57.56% promoter stake acquisition, one of the largest ever cross-border deals in the communication platform space. Listed in September 2020, Route Mobile is primarily engaged in offering omnichannel communication solutions, including automated SMS, WhatsApp notifications, voice-based, and email solutions.
As per existing regulations, since Proximus’ stake acquisition is over 25% and involves change in promoter group, the deal will trigger a mandatory open offer for the public shareholders, who held 41.68% stake as of 31 March. Accordingly, Proximus Opal will make an offer to acquire at least an additional 16.4 million shares, or 26%, from the public at a price of ₹1,626.4 apiece.
The takeover announcement initially propelled Route Mobile’s stock to a 52-week high at ₹1,759.50 on Monday, but later fell a sharp 8% to trade at ₹1,495.10 apiece. If Route Mobile’s public shareholders tender 26% of their shares in the open offer, Proximus will have to pay a total of at least ₹8,597.8 crore.
The rapid advent of digital services in the country, especially after the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, boosted Route Mobile’s business over the last three years, driving its stock from ₹717 at listing to ₹1,625 now. The latest deal can be attributed to the fast-emerging significance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the world.
Route Mobile provides AI-based firewall analytics solutions to mobile network operators worldwide, serving over 3,000 customers, including enterprises, OTTs, and mobile operators. “The partnership with Telesign paves the way for Route Mobile to become one of the global CPaaS (communication platform as a service) leaders and achieve a billion-dollar annual revenue run-rate much sooner
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