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Telef髇ica breaks silence on bid for O2
By Mark Odell in Barcelona
Published: November 18 2005 18:15 | Last updated: November 18 2005 18:15
Telef髇ica on Friday briefly broke its silence on its ?7.7bn ($30.4bn) bid for O2, as one of the Spanish telecoms group抯 most senior executives apologised to investors for surprising them with a deal that ran counter to its strategy.

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Shareholders were caught off-guard by Telef髇ica抯 agreed offer for the UK抯 second largest mobile phone operator last month.
The Spanish company had previously signalled its search for acquisitions was focused on medium-sized operators with fixed and mobile operations in the Mediterranean basin and eastern Europe. It is known to be interested in OTE but the Greek government, which owns a majority stake, is unlikely to sanction a sale in the short term.
Santiago Fern醤dez Valbuena, Telef髇ica chief financial officer, said that after a number of failed attempts in North Africa the watershed in the group抯 strategy came when the Spanish company withdrew from the auction of Turk Telecom, Turkey抯 state-owned operator, in April.
揑f you are an investor we owe you an apology because we weren抰 able to communicate this change in strategy,?Mr Valbuena told a Morgan Stanley investor conference in Barcelona.
Telef髇ica publicly denied interest in O2 as recently as September. Mr Valbuena said this was necessary to pull off the audacious swoop on the company.
Deutsche Telekom had targeted the mobile operator, which has operations in the UK, Germany and Ireland, earlier this year in a failed attempt to launch a joint bid with KPN of the Netherlands. Mr Valbuena refused to discuss any further the implications of the deal or Telef髇ica抯 plans for O2, citing restrictions under UK takeover rules.
The deal is expected to close early next year.
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