The planned sale of Polish operator Play (branded as P4) has been shelved after underwhelming bids from private equity firms.
Play has been owned by Iceland’s Novator and Greece’s Tollerton since 2008, with the two funds respectively holding a 49.7% and a 50.3% stake.
Tollerton confirmed that a total of seven bids had been received, with non-binding bids lodged by private equity firms Blackstone, CVC Partners, and a partnership between Cinven and Warburg Pincus. Tollerton noted that the bids evaluated Play at “around the area of €3.5 billion ($3.9 billion)”.
Last year, the owners had considered selling Play for around $2 billion. However, after exploring several options including an IPO, the decision was reached to invite bids, with the auction being led by UBS and Bank of America.
