The Greek government exercised a put option today to sell a further 10% of its shares in incumbent OTE to German operator Deutsche Telekom (DT) for around E400m.
After the transaction of approximately 49 million shares, DT will own 40% plus on share of…
The Greek government exercised a put option today to sell a further 10% of its shares in incumbent OTE to German operator Deutsche Telekom (DT) for around E400m.
After the transaction of approximately 49 million shares, DT will own 40% plus on share of the Greek operator’s voting rights, while the Greek government will own 10% plus one vote.
Back in May, reports had suggested that DT was trying to stall its obligatory acquisition of a further 10%. One local report suggested that the German group was looking for more leeway to carry out a reorganisation of OTE’s fixed-line operations before acquiring the government stake.
DT originally acquired a stake of 25% plus one share in OTE in May 2008. In this deal, it also granted the government two put options to sell further stakes in the company.
Using the first option, the state sold a 5% stake to DT earlier this year.
The state reportedly plans to sell down its entire 20% stake in OTE by the end of Q2 2011. As well as engaging the put option with DT for 10% of OTE, the government is also transferring a 4% stake to the country’s pension fund, and may also look to sell the remaining 6%, reports add.
OTE could not be reached before the press deadline.
