The Government's privatization advisor, CSFB/CS, reportedly approached over 30 potential investors in relation the sale of the state's 51% stake in the company. Investor response to a call to express a preliminary interest has reportedly been very good. According to the National Property Fund's (NPF) deputy chairman, Pavel Kuta, the recommendation for the optimal privatization form (i.e., market placement or a tender) to be submitted to the Cabinet by the NPF and CSFB/CS, is not ready yet. Kuta added that the Cabinet might receive it in the first half of November. Source CTK.
Originally, the Cabinet was expected to make a decision on the privatization form by the end of October. We believe now that the decision may be known by the end of November. Given the recent comments from the PM and deputy PM together with the government's counting on the privatization proceeds from CT for the 2005 budget, we still see the odds moving towards a capital market transaction. Deutsche Telekom's CFO said for die Welt yesterday that while DT is considering acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe it is not interested in the CT privatization. Source: Bloomberg.
While there has been speculation that DT was interested in CT, we are not surprised as DT had repeated several times in the past that it was not interested in CT. We believe that DT is focusing more on acquisitions/consolidation of its stakes in mobile operators such as PTC in Poland. In addition, DT holds a 61% stake in T-Mobile CR (the No.2 domestic operator), hence any eventual bid for CT would unlikely be unconditional due to the anti-trust office (CT holds 100% stake in mobile operator Eurotel, the No.1 domestic operator).
Tomáš Gatěk, Patria Finance