Vodafone Group was still 55% short in Kabel Deutschland shares in order to be tendered on Wednesday. The need to accumulate 75% in Kabel was in order to succeed on its EUR7.7 billion or USD10.2 billion offer for the German cable company.
Vodafone has been offering EUR84.50 per share to shareholders before midnight today. Should Vodafone would not succeed in securing three quarters of the German company's shares for sale, the bid may fall through.
Vodafone has been itching to seal its acquisition of Kabel in order to tap the largest mobile market in Europe. The British company intended to offer services in television and fixed-line.
According to Reuters, it is common practice for shareholders to wait a bit longer until deadline to tender their shares. This is buy time for a possible, higher offer. Kabel Deutschland's largest shareholder, U.S. activist investment fund manager Paul Singer, has been insistent with Vodafone to raise its offer.
As of 15:30 GMT (10:30 EDT) on September 10, Vodafone has a 19.88% share in Kabel.
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