TELECOM'S SELL-OFF PLAN APPROVED BY CABINET

Business | February 28, 2002, Thursday // 00:00

Cabinet approved plans for the sale of up to 65 % of Bulgarian Telecommunication Company (BTC) in a two-stage competition open to both telecoms firms and financial investors. Under the strategy up to 20 % in BTC will be placed on the local stock exchange. Financial investors with assets of over EUR 300 M will be eligible to bid. Candidates who wish to control the BTC should be telecoms with at least EUR 500 M revenue for 2001 or operating fixed line networks with two million subscribers at least, the sell-off plan of the company envisages. No minimum bid price would be set for the sell-off. There will be an option to get the country's third GSM network licence. The sale is expected to be launched in March and completed by mid-year. Greek OTE, Hungary's Matav, Spain's Telefonica, and financial investors are among those interested in the competition. Transport Minister Plamen Petrov said he expects only half of the 10 companies to bid and that some of the candidates might form consortia to meet the preliminary conditions. The plan needs to be passed by parliament before the sale is launched.

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