The Slovenian Compensation Company (Slovenska odškodninska družba, SOD) has issued a notice of invitation to submitting an indication of interest in purchasing a 72.75% ownership share of Telekom, and published it in the Slovenian newspaper Finance as well as Financial Times. The notice was published in the name of the sellers: the Republic of Slovenia and Slovenian companies Kapitalska družba pokojninskega in invalidskega zavarovanja, d. d., Pozavarovalnica Sava, d. d., and Zavarovalnica Triglav.
The letter of intent regarding the sale of shares had also been signed by other shareholders who own a total of 185,279 shares, which represents 2.83% of nominal capital. The total ownership share, together with these additional shareholders, amounts to 75.58% of nominal capital.
SOD has also stated that the sellers invite all parties interested in the purchase to indicate their interest in a multi-stage selection process of a priority bidder in the transaction by submitting an indication of interest. The deadline is 23 April 2014.
The procedures may be subject to change at any time
The purpose of an indication of interest is to enable to assess all interested parties which exhibit a legal and financial capability to purchase and own Telekom Slovenije. After receiving and assessing all indications of interest, the sellers and the Citi company, authorized by the sellers, will determine if the interested party has met the conditions to participate in the next stage of the selection process.
The interested parties having fulfilled these conditions will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement and will receive further information on the intended transaction and the company.
The sellers and Citi may, in their sole discretion, modify or terminate the currently planned procedures, including terminating talks with any potential buyer or all bidders, at any time, in any way as well as without prior notice and explication.
A lot of interest
Telekom Slovenije, one of Slovenian’s biggest companies, has been available for purchase several times already. The government attempted to sell it in 2007 and 2008, and now Telekom is part of the first package of companies open to privatization, for which the parliament gave its consent on 21 June 2013.
The sale is expected to draw a lot of interest. The media have been mentioning Deutsche Telekom as the most likely potential candidate for a while. The German company would likely make a bid through its subsidiary companies, T-Hrvatski Telekom or Magyar Telekom. In the past Russian companies Sistema Holding and Gazprom Telekom as well as Turkish Türk Telekom and Nordic Telenor have been mentioned as possible candidates for the purchase. The current market capitalization of Telekom at the Ljubljana Stock Exchange is EUR 876 million.
B. V., Al. Ma.; translated by K. Z.
