DENMARK - Carlyle acquires TDC headquarters

The Carlyle Group has announced the acquisition of the headquarters of TDC, the communications group at the centre of an attempted take-private by NTC, the acquisition vehicle of a consortium of private equity firms. The headquarters include 19 buildings located in Copenhagen. The main part of the property is currently let to TDC. TDC has also divested 224 of its properties in Denmark to ATP Ejendomme and PFA Ejendomme in a lease-back scheme for DKK 4.1bn. A consortia of investors, comprising Apax, Blackstone, KKR, Permira and Providence Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in TDC in February 2006 but have been thwarted in their attempts to delist the asset by the Danish pension fund ATP. ATP submitted a formal protest against NTC and TDC in March to prevent the squeeze out of ATP and other minority shareholders of TDC. 90.93% of voters at a general meeting on 28 February supported NTC's wish to change TDC's laws to enable the take-private to proceed. At the time, Lars Rohde, director of ATP said: 'ATP does not find the DKK 382 per share offer price attractive enough.' Last month, the Eastern High Court in Denmark upheld ATP's complaint that the provisions allowing a squeeze-out of minority shareholders were invalid. Following this verdict, TDC and NTC decided not to appeal, and the company remains a listed entity.