Telekom Austria Hasn’t Submitted New Bid for Telekom Srbija
May 02, 2011, 10:03 AM EDTBy Misha Savic and Zoe Schneeweiss
(Updates with Serbian government statement, background)
May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Telekom Austria AG hasn’t submitted a new bid for Telekom Srbija AD, the Austrian company and the Serbian government said today, refuting a media report the two sides negotiated a price for a smaller than expected stake.
“Speculation that appeared in certain media that 30 percent of Telekom Srbija was sold to Telekom Austria for 840 million euros ($1.25 billion) is absolutely not correct,” the Serbian government said in a statement, referring to an unattributed report by Belgrade-based B92 broadcaster.
As the majority owner of Telekom Srbija, Serbia has asked for at least 1.4 billion euros in cash for a 51 percent stake of the national provider of land line, mobile phone, Internet and multimedia services.
Telekom Austria has until May 4, at 2 p.m. local time, to reconsider its standing offer of 950 million euros in cash and 450 million euros in investments for the majority stake. Telekom Austria has made no new offer by now, said spokeswoman Elisabeth Mattes.
The government in Belgrade reiterated its asking price today. Serbian opposition groups demanded a criminal probe last week against Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and several others for allegedly mishandling the Telekom tender. Cvetkovic rejected the criticism, as well as claims that the company was offered below its value.
Citigroup Inc. advisers have valued the entire company at 2.43 billion euros. Twenty percent of the company belongs to Greece’s Hellenic Telecommunications Organizations AS.
To contact the reporters on this story: Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net; Zoe Schneeweiss in Vienna at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net; Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net
