Parliament approved the amendment to the law on conditions of the state assets’ transfer to other persons; the amendment enables the sale of shares of the Slovak Telekom (ST) company through a new procedure: public offer on capital markets (IPO).
“The most preferred alternative for selling property shares of state and the National Property Fund (FNM) share of the Slovak Telekom company are the sale via capital markets (IPO) and subsidiarily, depending on several factors influencing the outlook for success of IPO, direct sale, or their combination, so-called dual track,” SITA quoted the ministry on June 25.
The law is effective as of August 1, the TASR newswire wrote.
Slovak Telekom (ST) is co-owned by the Deutsche Telekom AG company and the Slovak state. In mid February, the Memorandum on Understanding was signed between Deutsche Telekom AG, and Slovakia represented by the Economy Ministry, the FNM state property administrator and the ST company about the sale of 49-percent stake in St owned by the state. FNM started selecting an investment bank to coordinate and manage the IPO project.
MPs also passed an amending proposal which makes selected companies that are so-called “natural monopolies” be transferred from the FNM to the Economy Ministry from August 1 on. These include Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (SPP) gas utility, Západoslovenská energetika (ZSE), Stredoslovenská energetika (SSE), Východoslovenská energetika (VSE) and Slovenské elektrárne (SE) energy companies. The reason is the process of closing down the National property Fund, as this from its beginning was meant to be a provisional body to manage the privatisation of state
companies after the fall of communism.
(Source: SITA, 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.
