Macquarie Fund Makes Rival Bid for Cincinnati Bell

(Bloomberg) -- A Macquarie Group Ltd. infrastructure fund has made an unsolicited offer for Cincinnati Bell Inc., potentially upsetting the telecommunications company’s deal with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, people familiar with the matter said.

Cincinnati Bell on Friday said it had received a bid of $12 a share from an unidentified infrastructure fund and had commenced discussions. Brookfield Infrastructure’s agreement in December to buy the company for $10.50 a share, or $2.6 billion, including debt, remains in place, Cincinnati Bell said.

No final decisions have been made and the Macquarie fund may decide against going ahead with the deal or talks could fall apart, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

Cincinnati Bell Gets Unsolicited Acquisition Bid

Representatives for Macquarie, Brookfield Infrastructure and Cincinnati Bell declined to comment.

Cincinnati Bell fell 1.9% to $13.25 at 12:08 p.m. in New York trading Thursday, giving the company a market value of about $670 million. The company also has about $2 billion of debt.

Macquarie’s bid would value the phone company’s equity at $605 million, while Brookfield Infrastructure’s offer values it at about $530 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Cincinnati Bell was incorporated in 1873, originally providing telegraph services, making it one of the first “telephonic” exchanges in the U.S., according to its website. It currently serves customers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

--With assistance from Harry Brumpton.

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net;Nabila Ahmed in New York at nahmed54@bloomberg.net;Ed Hammond in New York at ehammond12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson, Michael Hytha

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