The cabinet is voting on the deal at its regular meeting on April 6. According to a source close to the transaction, Telefonica be should confirmed as the winner of the tender. We believe that Telefonica’s price of CZK 82.6bn, i.e. CZK 502 / share, is attractive enough for the government to approve the sale.
Separately, rating agency S&P said it placed Cesky Telecom’s rating on watch for possible upgrade after Telefonica might be chosen as strategic investor.
Reportedly Telefonica is not planning to sell Cesky Telecom’s mobile subsidiary Eurotel and to transfer the payment of the state stake to CTel, but it might use dividends from CTel for financing the deal.