On Saturday the daily MF Dnes reported that telecom company Swisscom has expressed an interest in Cesky Telecom. The chairman of the National Property Fund J. Juchelka confirmed that the head of Swisscom sent a letter of preliminary interest last Thursday to the Czech Prime Minister S. Gross. Sources said that Swisscom did not indicate at what price it would buy the stake. We remind that Swisscom had until 2003 a minority stake in CT through TelSource, a joint venture together with KPN. According to the daily, Telecom Austria and another three companies are also interested in the CT privatization. Later deputy-chairman P. Kuta denied interest from Telecom Austria. Danish operator TDC together with Goldman Sachs and Vodafone also expressed an interest in the CT stake earlier this year. According to a government document six telecoms companies have already expressed a preliminary interest in CT.
Bloomberg says that the government may face legal risks If they decide to sell CT in a fully marketed offering. Hence the state might be forced to sell the stake via an accelerated book-building (in case of capital market transaction).
Emilia Zampieri, Patria Finance