Slovakia intends to sell its 49% stake in Slovak Telekom on the Bratislava and London stock exchanges, the incumbent has officially announced.
The government intends to transfer all its shares to the National Property Fund, which will offer them as…
Slovakia intends to sell its 49% stake in Slovak Telekom on the Bratislava and London stock exchanges, the incumbent has officially announced.
The government intends to transfer all its shares to the National Property Fund, which will offer them as shares and global depository receipts. Each GDR will represent an interest in one share.
The shares are expected to be listed on the local bourse and the GDRs on the London exchange. No pricing details were provided.
Citigroup and JP Morgan are acting as joint global coordinators and bookrunners, while Erste Group and Wood & Co are acting as joint lead managers.
Majority shareholder Deutsche Telekom intends to retain its 51% stake in the telco and will not sell shares in the offering.
The offering, subject to relevant regulatory approvals including from the National Bank of Slovakia, will include a public offer to investors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and institutional investors in other areas.
Slovak retail investors who submit early offers will be eligible for a 5% discount and priority allocation on orders up to €10,000.
CEO Miroslav Majoros commented: “By integrating services across our own fixed and mobile networks we have transformed Slovak Telekom into one of Central Europe’s most exciting telecommunications companies and Slovakia’s only truly integrated quad-play provider.
“Through significant capital investment, improved efficiency and enhanced capability, we now have an integrated offering enabling us to deliver higher value services and premium content through triple and quad-play bundles”.
He added that the IPO would mark an important next step in the company’s development and bring “greater visibility”.
Both the National Property Fund and the German incumbent will be subject to a 180-day lock-up period after the offering, preventing them from divesting shares in the telco, subject to limited exceptions.
Slovak Telekom is the country’s largest integrated telco and market leader in terms of revenues in the fixed voice, broadband and pay-TV sectors. It was the second-largest mobile player in terms of service revenues in 2014 behind the local unit of France’s Orange. Slovak Telekom was the first local mobile operator to commercially launch 4G and says it had extended outdoor population coverage to 52% by the end of last year.
The company claims to have 1.163 million fixed-line and 2.22 million mobile subscribers.
It reported revenues of €768m, adjusted EBITDA of €311m and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 40.05% for 2014.
