NEW YORK-Telesystem International Wireless Inc., Montreal, scaled back but proceeded June 9 with its first stock sale in the United States.
The carrier sold 6.75 million subordinated voting shares, down from the 8 million originally planned. The stock, which now trades on the Nasdaq National Market, was priced at $21.35 per share through an underwriting syndicate led by Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York.
The initial public offering in this country raised gross proceeds of $144.11 million, down from the $200 million Telesystem said it hoped to gain from the sale.
About a year ago, the company completed its IPO in Canada, where it trades on the Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges.
SMR activities
TIW also announced its French subsidiary, Regiocom SA, acquired the specialized mobile radio operations of France Telecom, adding about 25,000 subscribers.
France Telecom’s operations are marketed under the Praxiphone, Heliophone and Armoricom brand names.
“This acquisition … (makes us) the number-one SMR operator in France and in the United Kingdom and the second-largest in Germany and Spain,” said Yves Marois, executive vice president of TIW and chairman of Dolphin Telecom plc, TIW’s European SMR operating company.
Dolphin, which has about 180,000 analog subscribers, expects to receive a license to build an enhanced SMR network in France soon.
