Greek incumbent OTE (Hellenic Telecommunications Organization) is considering selling its Bulgarian units Bulgaria Globul and Germanos Telecom Bulgaria to help refinance €3.4bn (US$4.3bn) of debt set to mature within the next two years.
A spokesperson…
Greek incumbent OTE (Hellenic Telecommunications Organization) is considering selling its Bulgarian units Bulgaria Globul and Germanos Telecom Bulgaria to help refinance €3.4bn (US$4.3bn) of debt set to mature within the next two years.
A spokesperson for OTE, in which Germany’s Deutsche Telekom has a 40% stake, confirmed reports in Greek and Bulgarian media that the telco intends to launch formal sales procedures.
According to Bulgarian reports, OTE has hired the London unit of US-based Citigroup to advise on the sale and the bank has already approached several telecoms operators. They named Turkey’s Turkcell, Vodafone and France Telecom’s Orange as potential buyers. Turkcell bid for Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (Vivacom) earlier this year, but the latter’s owners cancelled the sale.
OTE has nearly €5bn in debt, of which €3.4bn is set to mature before the end of 2014. Because of tight lending conditions in Greece – and Europe in general – the telco has opted to sell assets to raise the much-needed financing. Last December, OTE confirmed it was selling another of its Balkan assets, Telekom Srbija, back to the state-owned company for €380m. In January, the company stated it may also consider selling its domestic satellite unit Hellas Sat.
The Hellenic Republic and Deutsche Telekom together own 50% of OTE, with the remaining shares held by international institutional investors (28.9%), Greek institutional invests (11.2%) and other shareholders (9.9%).
