The National Property Fund last night announced that eight preliminary bids have been submitted in the Cesky telecom tender sale, which is a higher number than the five bids unofficially reported on Thursday morning. The NPF did not release specific names, but based on various reports, the list seems to include: Orange (confirmed, though declared an interest in Eurotel only), Deutsche Telekom (not confirmed), a consortium of Warburg Pincus/Doughty Hanson/Apax Partners, a consortium of CVC Capital Partners/Spectrum Equity Partners, and four other bidders, very likely including other telcos. Vivendi Universal reportedly said it did not bid (refuting earlier reports), nor did Telefonica, Telia, Telenor and Vodafone. (Sources: NPF, DJN, CTK.) The higher-than-originally-reported number of bids is encouraging, but probably insufficient to lift the stock.
Some of these eight bidders will now combine their bids (financial investors can bid only together with strategic investors). The winning bid is to be recommended to the Cabinet by the end of March. Government officials have made it clear that the tender will be canceled if the bidding proves unsatisfactory.
Separately, the Czech telecoms regulator said yesterday that the monthly subscription fee charged by Cesky Telecom will continue increasing in the coming years, to up to CZK 400 per month (from CZK 299 for 2002). Positive, but did not have an impact on the stock.
(Ondrej Datka)