Mexican firm América Móvil has dropped its efforts to take over Dutch telecoms group KPN in a deal worth €7.2bn.

The company said in a statement that its aim to acquire more than 50% of the voting rights in KPN had been blocked by the foundation set up to protect the company.

The foundation ‘obstructs the fulfillment of this aim, to the detriment of KPN shareholders who would have wanted to participate in the intended offer’, the statement said.

Independence

América Móvil launched its €2.40 offer for the former Dutch state monopoly in August.

Several weeks later, the foundation, charged with ensuring the continuity of the company and set up at privatisation in 1994, took control of almost 50% of KPN’s voting rights.

América Móvil said it had several discussions with KPN but had never received a reaction from the company.

‘KPN requires a strategic partner with operational experience in the telecommunication sector, with sufficient scale and long-term vision, in order to tackle during the upcoming years the significant challenges the European telecom industry faces,’ the statement said.

Jan Maarten Slagter, head of the Dutch shareholders’ association VEB, said KPN must now prove the company can move ahead on its own two feet.