Instructions

The CEO of ABC Telecom Ltd. (ABC) is in a quandary since he received the telephone call in the morning from his counterpart at LMN Telecom Ltd. (LMN). Both companies were engaged in a bitter experience a couple of years ago when they had attempted to merge with the intention of creating a behemoth telecom company, possibly the largest in the world. The merger had fallen through due to opportunistic behavior on the part of Mr. Das, then CEO of LMN. During the time the merger talks were taking place,  Mr. Das had also approached a few other suitors for LMN in an attempt to force ABC to pay a higher price. Further, there were reports of attempts by management of LMN to scuttle the deal. Back then, ABC had also faced stiff opposition to the deal from one of its large shareholders.

Since then, a lot has changed for both companies. The bleak economic conditions due to recession had led to a drastic fall in the market value of both companies, with ABC comparatively losing much more in terms of market value. Raising money has become more difficult for both companies, especially for LMN. On the brighter side for ABC, the opposing shareholder had recently sold off his stake to another investor who earlier had supported the original merger deal with LMN a couple of years ago.

Question 37

The merger of ABC and LMN has been confirmed after detailed negotiation with LMN holding the majority share of the resultant entity. LMN has financed the merger by taking debt at higher - than - market interest rates from its bankers, in the hope that it would be able to streamline operations and reduce costs in the resultant entity which will allow it to repay the loan. If you were an investor looking to invest in telecom companies, which of the following could be the strongest reasons for staying away from investing in resultant entity?

Solution

An investor would not invest where the company seems losing over its competitors.. As per the option E, merger of the two companies has no visible advantage over the competitors.

An investor usually invests in companies that are profitable in the longer run.

The newer entities had better offers for customers. However, it does not prove that the newer entities would be more profitable than the other entities. Hence, A option is incorrect.

Option D is incorrect. To reject an entire investment because of the character of a person is baseless.

Between B and E, B points out why the merger would give not distinct advantage to the new entity; however E points out why the merger is a massive risk.

Hence, option E is the correct answer.


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