Serbia to be advised by Citi consortium on Telekom sale
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Serbia has got a consortium led by Citigroup as the sole bidder to advise it on the sale of a 40% stake in Telekom Srbija. Two week time has been left with the tender commission to consider the financial offer by the consortium and decide whether to accept it.
Plan to sell of half the 80% stake in Telekom Srbija has been announced by Belgrade in March along with the investment of the money in infrastructure projects.
Government called a tender for a financial advisor as a part of the sales procedure to determine the value of shares and advise the best sale procedure. According to Deutsche Telekom, it is mulling an offer for the stake; it already has an interest via Greek operator OTE which owns the remaining 20% of the Serbia Company.
Telekom Srbija 40% stake to be sold by govt (Serbia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Selling of 40 percent stake in the state-owned operator Telekom Srbija has been decided by the Serbian government. Transfer of PTT Srbija shares of all Telekom Srbija shares it owns to the state without compensation has also been requested the government.
The two working groups will be headed by the state secretary for finance, Slobodan Ilic to organize the tender and sale. One group will monitor the sales process and the other should choose a privatization consultant. The company will choose the privatization advisor within 90 days. EUR 3 billion and EUR 3.5 billion has been the estimated value of Telekom Srbija by a leading US consulting firm.
Invitation of offers will be invited by Serbia from prospective sale advisers in April and select the consultant in May. In September, bids for 40 percent holding will be invited and in November, suitors that pass the qualification stage will compete in an auction.
The government controls 80 percent of Telekom, while the remaining 20 percent is held by Greek telecom company OTE.
Sale of 40% stake in Telecom Srbija inches closer
The Serbian government is all set to discuss the sale of a 40% stake in Telecom Srbija later this week. Greek operator OTE owns 20% of Telekom Srbija while the remaining stake is controlled by the government.
According to Jasna Matic, the telecoms minister, the state has been poorly managing the company and that a sale would be good for the economy. The minister was also of the opinion that several companies are interested in the stake, including OTE shareholder Deutsche Telekom, Orascom and Turk Telecom.
It is expected that this sale will be a part of the international tender and the government will form a special budget for the funds collected from.
Telenor’s landline talks with Serbian operator deadlocked
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The talk over the leasing of landline infrastructure between Norwegian telecoms group Telenor and Serbian fixed line incumbent Telekom Srbija has come under deadlock. Without this deal, Telenor cannot operate.
According to Ana Davico, a Belgrade-based Telenor spokeswoman, the company has placed a standard offer, usual for other European countries, but Telekom Srbija wants more favourable terms and that is unacceptable.
Telenor was awarded nation’s second landline phone license by Serbia’s telecom regulator Ratel for EUR1.05 million (USD1.42 million) in January. The Norwegian company pledged to lease Telekom Srbija’s infrastructure before developing its own fibre-optic network.
MTEL stake eyed by Telekom Srpske
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Amsterdam-based holding company Ogalar and Bosnian telco Telekom Srpske are in negotiation with each other regarding the purchase of a 49% stake in Montenegrin cellco MTEL.
The remaining 50 percent of MTEL is owned by Telekom Srbija whose 80 percent is owned by the Serbian government and 20% by Greece’s OTE. Meanwhile, 65 percent of Telekom Srpske is owned by Telekom Srbija and 25% owned by three funds based in Republika Srpska (10% by a privatization fund, 10% by the company’s Pension and Life Assurance Fund and 5% by its Restitution Fund).
10 percent of the company is owned by public.
Serbia looks for third mobile operator
BELGRADE — The Republic Telecommunications Agency has announced a public competition for another mobile phone operator in Serbia.
So far, the only buying of tender documentation in the allotted amount of time was done by Austrian company Mobikom, who already participated in the auction for the Mobi 63 company, but lost to Norway’s Telenor.
The competition for the third licensed operator was announced on September 19 with the starting price of 320 million euros.
Operators who have more than three million mobile service customers and whose income at the end of last year was more than 500 million euros, can participate in the tender for becoming Serbia’s third operator, next to Telekom Srbija and Telenor.
The license for the third mobile operator in Serbia is given out for a period of ten years and once the ten years pass, the contract is extended for another ten automatically.
According to the regulations of the public tender, the names of all interested bidders will be announced on November 6 and the final decision on the best offer is scheduled to be made on November 15.
