A MAJOR shareholder in Dutch telecoms group KPN, US investor Capital Research and Management, has more than halved its stake to 6.79 per cent, leaving Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s telecom group as the only big owner.

America Movil, which has said it is aiming to buy up to 27.7 per cent of KPN to gain a foothold in Europe, said on June 21st it had increased its stake to almost 21 per cent from 8.7 per cent the day before.

Several small KPN shareholders said last week they had sold or were planning to sell their shares, as they expected Mr Slim’s bid to succeed, giving him effective control of KPN. He could control KPN with a stake of almost 28 per cent because usually only half, or fewer, of KPN’s investors turn up at the company’s shareholder meetings.

Capital Research and Management held 6.79 per cent of KPN’s voting rights as of June 21st, versus a voting right stake of 15.11 per cent in January, filings at the Dutch market regulator showed yesterday.

KPN said on June 20th that it had ended talks on a combination of its German business with a competitor, which it had sought to convince shareholders would provide greater value than Mr Slim’s offer of €8 a share. – (Bloomberg)