The Economy Ministry is proposing to change the privatisation act in order to enable Slovak state to sell its shares of Slovak Telekom on the stock exchange. The majority owner of Slovak Telekom shares, the Deutsche Telekom company, was promised that the sale via the exchange will start before this summer, the Sme daily wrote in its April 22 issue. A memorandum on cooperation stipulates that Slovakia shall start looking for an investment bank as advisor on the transaction as soon as this month.
The draft amendment will enable the state to sell via the exchange only a portion of its shares in Slovak Telekom, however. Thus, it can sell part of its 49 percent of shares directly to Deutsche Telekom and thus render it a comfortable majority stake. If the government divides the package, this may influence the final price. The government plans to acquire €1 billion from the sale of its Slovak Telekom stake.
The Slovak government has the fast-track passing of the privatisation act on the agenda for the April 23 parliamentary session, the TASR newswire wrote a day earlier. The law should be valid from July 1 on.
(Source: Sme, TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
