Slovenia invites bids for Telekom Slovenia

The Slovenian government has finally started the ball rolling on plans to sell its 72.75 per cent stake in Telekom Slovenia by calling for interested parties to submit their expressions of interest by close of business on April 23.

In a statement on the web site of state investment fund SOD, the government added that other shareholders with a collective stake of 2.83 per cent have also signed letters of intent expressing an interest in selling their shares as part of the transaction, taking the total stake up for grabs to 75.58 per cent. Citigroup Global Markets (Citi) has been appointed as adviser.

Once expressions of interest have been received, the sellers and Citi will then determine which of the interested parties should be included in the next phase. The parties would then receive more information about the transaction and the company after signing a confidentiality agreement.

Citing unnamed sources, Reuters reported in December that private equity groups and companies such as Deutsche Telekom and Telenor could be interested in the operator, which has a market capitalisation of €876 million ($1.2 billion).

Telekom Slovenia offers fixed and mobile services in the Central European country, using the Mobitel brand for its mobile services. It competes with Telekom Austria's SIMobil, T-2 and Tusmobil on the mobile market.

Slovenia is planning to privatise 15 state-owned companies in total.

For more:
- see this statement on the SOD site
- see this Reuters article

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