Given the Wednesday, January 9, deadline for preliminary bids in Cesky Telecom, there could be some speculative trading of the stock this week. The government received 25 indications of preliminary interest in CT in December, though the bidders have not been identified. The government and TelSource seek to sell their combined 78% stake in the company.
Separately, a Cesky Telecom spokesman said, in this week’s Euro newsweekly, that the initial wave of fixed-line contract cancellations by CT customers (following news of a major hike in the subscription fee in February) has subsided and that customers are now tending to switch from one tariff package to another (as opposed to leaving Cesky Telecom). Neutral.
Also, the CEO of Eurotel (51% owned by Cesky Telecom) expects the number of Czech mobile users to reach 8.2 mil. by the end of 2002 (from 7.0 mil. at the end of 2001), which is a somewhat higher number than our forecast (7.85 mil.). Neutral.
(Ondrej Datka)