As expected, yesterday the Cabinet approved the sale of the state’s 51% stake in Cesky Telecom (CT) to Telefonica of Spain for CZK 82bn or CZK 502/share. According to earlier comments the National Property Fund (NPF) expects the sale agreement to be signed in the second half of April. Yesterday the NPF repeated it expects the whole transaction to be completed by the end of June. Once the transaction is completed and the state’s shares are transferred to Telefonica, Telefonica will be obliged to make a buy-out offer to minority shareholders within 60 days. Telefonica expects the buy-out to be completed in the third quarter of the year. Although the Cabinet has approved the sale of its stake in CT to Telefonica, the sale agreement must still be signed. However, there still exists a possibility the Cabinet might fall in the coming days and so we see the risk of a delay in the transaction should the Cabinet fall before the contract is signed.