Vodafone's 20pc Walker option

By RICHARD WOOD

Mobile telco Vodafone has options to buy up to 19.9 per cent of shares in local firm Walker Wireless in two bites.

Confirmation of the arrangement has been filed by Walker Wireless at the Companies Office.

Walker Wireless managing director Rod Inglis said the options rolled over from a similar agreement last year and relate to the jointly-funded commercial trial of Walker's wireless broadband services.

He said the expiry date on the options was about 18 months to two years away.

Vodafone NZ managing director Tim Miles said no decision about taking up the options had been made. He would not give further details, citing commercial confidentiality.

In May last year Vodafone put up $3 million to help finance a wireless broadband trial with Walker Wireless.

Last month Walker announced it had cemented its relationship with Vodafone whereby its network of Vodafone stores would sell Walker's palm-sized wireless modems.

The first option in the filing involves up to 15 per cent of Walker Wireless at 33c a share, or lower depending on other preference shares being offered at that time.

The second option would allow that to be increased to up to 19.9 per cent at a price per share 45 per cent higher than the first option.

Walker Wireless' 2003 annual return was filed on June 24 and listed just over 122 million shares, which if valued at 33c a share would equate to a value for the firm of $40.3 million.

Late last year, entrepreneurs Stephen Tindall and Craig Heatley, Todd Corporation and California-based venture capital group Clarity Partners followed through on their promises of topping-up their investments.

Initially the syndicate of investors, with Vodafone, put $20 million into Walker Wireless to fund the trials and early deployment of the network.

Clarity's original deal involved an investment of $5 million, with an agreement to increase that to $15 million if the trials proved a success.

The local investors increased their stakes by $12 million last year, agreeing to raise their stakes after the trials.

Eventually a total of about $60 million will have been raised to fund Walker Wireless' broadband venture.