Cinven to bid for Telekom Slovenia - report

Telekom Slovenije, D.d

28/01/2015 17:07

LJUBLJANA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - International investment fund 
Cinven will bid for Slovenia's telecoms company Telekom Slovenia 
 TLSG.LJ , daily newspaper Finance reported on its website on 
Wednesday. 
    It said Cinven did not reveal the size of its bid for 
Telekom, which has a market capitalisation of 974 million euros 
($1.10 billion). The deadline for making binding bids for 
Telekom is the beginning of March, Finance said. 
    Cinven and Slovenia's state investment fund SDH, which is 
coordinating the privatisation, gave no immediate comment. 
    Telekom is the largest of 15 firms that Slovenia earmarked 
in 2013 for privatisation. Three of those firms have already 
been sold. 
    SDH told Reuters earlier in January that Telekom would be 
sold by the end of February.  ID:nL6N0UU429  
    Cinven is one of five firms that Slovenia has shortlisted as 
bidders for Telekom, along with Deutsche Telekom  DTEGn.DE , and 
investment funds Providence, Apax and Bain Capital, sources have 
told Reuters.  ID:nL5N0SP41U  
    Slovenia, which narrowly avoided an international bailout in 
the wake of the financial crisis, plans to use money raised from 
the privatisation process to cut public debt. 
    There is opposition to the government's privatisation plans 
and a civil society group plans a public protest against it in 
Ljubljana on February 7.  
 
         
 
 
($1 = 0.8815 euros) 
 
 (Reporting By Marja Novak. Editing by Jane Merriman) 
 ((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-1-505-8805; Reuters 
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SLOVENIA TELEKOM/M&A