PARIS, Sept 1 (Reuters) - French low-cost telecom operator Iliad said it would continue its pursuit of T-Mobile US even though the owner of the U.S. fourth-place mobile operator, Deutsche Telekom, had rebuffed its first bid as too low.
Thomas Reynaud, chief financial officer, said private equity funds and companies had contacted Iliad earlier in August regarding teaming up on the T-Mobile bid and that those talks were continuing.
"To ensure that these discussions go to term, we cannot tell you more about them this morning," said Reynaud, adding that he could not predict how long the talks would take.
Bringing in more investors could help Iliad to increase its $33 per share bid for a 56.6 percent stake in T-Mobile US.
To date, Deutsche Telekom has said that Iliad's offer would not create enough value for its shareholders. Reynaud said that Iliad had not yet won access to a so-called "data room", which is usually set up to give bidders access to non-public information on a company it wants to buy.
(Reporting by Leila Abboud and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Andrew Callus)