The Cabinet approved the sale of the state’s 51% stake in Cesky Telecom at a meeting late yesterday evening, the Czech Press Agency reports. No details were disclosed. A press conference on the tender sale will be held today at 10 a.m. CET.
It is likely that the tender winner is a consortium of Deutsche Bank/Blackstone Group/TDC, with a bid close to CZK 335 per share. It is also not clear whether the sale will involve the state’s 51% stake along with the 27% stake of TelSource (a KPN/SwissCom consortium).
The Deutsche Bank/Blackstone Group/TDC consortium is led by a financial investor, TDC, which would reportedly manage the Company with an option to buy the privatized stake in five years. Furthermore, while we believe the best strategy for CTel would be to acquire the remaining 49% stake in Eurotel, the No. 1 domestic cellular operator, it is rather likely at the moment that the new owner would either sell Ctel’s 51% stake in Eurotel or that a leveraged extraordinary dividend would take place.
(Jiri Soustruznik)