3rd UPDATE: Philips Sells 17% Stake In Pace For EUR76 Million
April 17 2009 - 5:12AM
Dow Jones News
Dutch electronics group Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV
(PHIA.AE) said Friday it sold its stake in U.K. set-top box maker
Pace PLC (PIC.LN) for EUR76 million, or about GBP67 million.
JP Morgan Cazenove was sole bookrunner for Philips in connection
with the offering of its 50.7 million Pace shares, which
represented 17% of Pace's issued share capital.
A person familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires the
shares were placed with both new and existing shareholders at an
average price of 135 pence a share. The buyers were predominantly
long-only U.K. investors, this person said.
Philips acquired the shares following the sale of its set-top
box connectivity business to Paceon April 21, 2008. It said Friday
the sale is in line with its strategy to dispose of non-core
shareholdings.
Pace has agreed to waive a lockup undertaking given by Philips
in relation to the shares, JP Morgan Cazenove said, which was due
to expire later this month.
At 0937 GMT, shares in Pace, which makes set-top boxes for
customers including British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (BSY), were
up 10.5 pence, or 7.5%, at 150.5 pence, outperforming a higher FTSE
250 index, up 0.66%.
British Sky Broadcasting Group is owned by News Corp. (NWS),
publisher of this newswire.
Company Web site: www.pace.com
-By Jason Douglas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9272;
jason.douglas@dowjones.com