The Ceske radiokomunikace parent company announced early yesterday afternoon that on December 27, 2001, it granted an option to purchase the parent company’s 39% stake in the RadioMobil mobile operator to its 100%-owned subsidiary, Ceske radiokomunikace Limited, based in the Cayman Islands. The company did not elaborate on its plans for the subsidiary; we consider tax purposes to be at least one of the reasons behind the move. The parent company is planning to sell its 39% RadioMobil stake (it confirmed this yesterday), and the profit on this sale and the resulting tax liability are likely to be very large. The parent company also confirmed that the sale of its 50% stake in the Contactel fixed-line and Internet service provider is being discussed. This has also been expected. A Ceske radiokomunikace spokesperson also said that Bivideon (TDC and Deutsche Bank) will want to sell its 72% stake in the parent company to a strategic investor. We consider all of the above news largely neutral, given that it does not address the issue of whether and how much minority shareholders will benefit from these sales. The market response to the news was positive.
(Ondrej Datka)