Macedonia regulator approves sale of Telekom Slovenia unit to Austrian peer

Telekom Slovenije, D.d

08/07/2015 15:31

LJUBLJANA/SKOPJE, July 8 (Reuters) - Macedonia's market 
regulator said on Wednesday it had approved the sale of Telekom 
Slovenia's  TLSG.LJ  Macedonian unit to Telekom Austria 
 TELA.VI , a move that could pave the way for completing the 
privatisation of the Slovenian parent. 
    Talks on the sale of state-owned Telekom Slovenia to 
British-based investment firm Cinven  CINV.UL  collapsed in June 
after Cinven said it would not pay the full price until the 
regulator approved the sale of Telekom's Macedonian unit. 
 ID:nL5N0Z209J  
     The regulator said the Macedonian unit could be sold to 
Telekom Austria as agreed by the two companies last year. The 
deal brings together Macedonia's second and third biggest mobile 
operators, the regulator said. 
    Telekom Austria will hold 55 percent of the merged venture 
and run the operation, while Telekom Slovenia would hold the 
remainder, with options to exit the venture within three years. 
    Cinven declined comment. Slovenian state firm SDH, which is 
coordinating the sale of Telekom Slovenia, said it could not 
immediately say if the talks would continue now that the sale of 
the Macedonian unit had been cleared. 
    Telekom, with a market capitalisation of 575 million euros, 
is the largest of 15 companies that Slovenia earmarked for 
privatisation in 2015. So far five of those firms have been 
sold. 
 
 (Reporting By Marja Novak in Ljubljana and Maja Zuvela in 
Skopje; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and Susan Fenton) 
 ((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-1-5058805; Reuters 
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SLOVENIA TELEKOM/