Citigroup has advised Serbia’s government to sell up to 50% of incumbent carrier Telekom Srbija instead of the 40% originally proposed.
The bank, hired in June to handle the sale, advised increasing the stake available following interest from Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telekom Austria, TeliaSonera and Orascom, Serbian daily Politika reports citing government sources.
Citigroup values the firm at €3.2 million and wants to proceed with the sale at the end of the month, the newspaper said.
Serbia’s government holds an 80% stake in the firm, and originally planned to sell 40% to Deutsche Telekom, and give-away 15% to the public with a further 12% allocated to employees.
However the deal with the German incumbent was scrapped amid fears it would be blocked by competition regulators because Deutsche Telekom already holds an indirect stake in Telekom Serbia through its 30% stake in Greek telco OTE.
The Greek firm owns 20% of Telekom Srbija.