Slovenia aims to sell Telekom, cut deficit -finance ministry (updated)
22/10/2014 18:34
(Updates with budget plans from para 2)
By Marja Novak
LJUBLJANA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Slovenia expects to sell
Telekom Slovenia TLSG.LJ , the most valuable company on its
privatisation list, in early 2015, state secretary at the
finance ministry Metod Dragonja told reporters on Wednesday.
The government also plans to cut the public sector wage bill
by 3 percent next year to help bring the budget deficit to below
3 percent of gross domestic product, in line with euro zone
rules, the finance ministry said later on Wednesday.
It also plans to raise taxes on financial and insurance
services, raise excise duties on sweet drinks and improve tax
collection so as to boost the budget income and enable the
government to increase spending for investment by some 24
percent next year to 1.5 billion euros.
Euro zone member Slovenia narrowly avoided having to seek an
international bailout last year for its state-owned banks. Now
government bond investors are looking to privatisations such as
Telekom's to help the country shore up its finances.
Dragonja said the government would adopt a strategy by the
end of the year for further privatisations.
"The state asset management strategy will also need to be
approved by parliament," Dragonja told reporters on the
sidelines of an investment conference. He said the government
plans to keep infrastructure firms, such as the Luka Koper
LKPG.LJ port, in state hands.
Prime Minister Miro Cerar told the same conference Slovenia
was committed to attracting more foreign direct investment and
pursuing privatisation.
Slovenia, whose annual economic output amounts to some 35
billion euros, pumped more than 3 billion euros ($3.8 billion)
into the local lenders last year to prevent them from collapsing
under a large amount of bad loans.
Cerar's one-month-old cabinet has pursued the sale of 15
firms earmarked for sale last year, of which three have been
sold so far.
Telekom has a market capitalisation of 941 million euros and
selling the state's 72.75 percent stake is expected to raise
more than 700 million euros for the government.
Cerar said the proceeds of the privatisation will be used to
finance development and reduce the nation's debt, which is
expected to rise to some 82.2 percent of GDP this year from 70
percent in 2013.
(1 US dollar = 0.7879 euro)
(Reporting by Marja Novak; Editing Ruth Pitchford)
((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-8-205-6369; Reuters
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: SLOVENIA TELEKOM/