Strategics qualify for PTK bidding process

Parties including Portugal Telecom (PT), Turkcell and subsidiaries of British Telecom (BT) and France Telecom (FT) have been elected to participate in the privatisation process of PTK of Kosovo, most of them in co-operation with private equity.
The…

Parties including Portugal Telecom (PT), Turkcell and subsidiaries of British Telecom (BT) and France Telecom (FT) have been elected to participate in the privatisation process of PTK of Kosovo, most of them in co-operation with private equity.

The decision, which marks the end of the pre-qualification period, was made at a meeting of the government privatisation committee on Friday, according to the economic development ministry of the country.

PT has teamed up with Albright Capital Management. BT, via its Polish subsidiary British Telecom-Poland, is in a consortium with Columbia Capital and ACP Axos Capital.

FT owned Sofrecom is bidding in cooperation with Twelve Hornbeams and Avicenna Capital.

Turkcell is bidding on its own, and the fifth player allowed to participate in the tender is M1 International.

The qualified bidders were chosen from a list of eight interested parties that had made submissions during the pre-qualification process.

Elkos of Kosovo, Geni Capital of Luxembourg, and Monaco Telecom International had been previously named as interested parties, but those players did not qualify according to the ministry.

The privatisation committee plans to launch the formal tender process next month, and hopes to announce the name of the winning bidder for the 75% stake in PTK before the end of the year.

Lazard and Raiffeisen Investment are advising the privatisation committee on the process.