ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - The Croatian Union of Posts and Telecommunications believes the final conditions for the sale of telecommunications company Hrvatske Telekomunikacije (HT) are favourable for the bidders, Deutsche Telekom and
Telia-Telenor, but bad for Croatia and HT workers. Union president Josip Pupic told reporters in Zagreb on Monday the so called business plan for the selection of the strategic investor, drafted by the Croatian government's advisory firm Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, was discarded in the drafting the contract for the purchase of HT's shares. The sole criterion became the price, the goal was to sell the 35 percent of HT's shares as soon as possible, added Pupic, who is also a member of HT's Privatisation Commission. According to the business plan, 40 percent of the decision on which bid was more favourable referred to the bid's technical part, 40 percen
ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - The Croatian Union of Posts and
Telecommunications believes the final conditions for the sale of
telecommunications company Hrvatske Telekomunikacije (HT) are
favourable for the bidders, Deutsche Telekom and Telia-Telenor,
but bad for Croatia and HT workers.
Union president Josip Pupic told reporters in Zagreb on Monday the
so called business plan for the selection of the strategic
investor, drafted by the Croatian government's advisory firm
Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, was discarded in the drafting the
contract for the purchase of HT's shares.
The sole criterion became the price, the goal was to sell the 35
percent of HT's shares as soon as possible, added Pupic, who is also
a member of HT's Privatisation Commission.
According to the business plan, 40 percent of the decision on which
bid was more favourable referred to the bid's technical part, 40
percent to the quality of the agreement and the contract, and only
20 percent to the money. Now however, identical contracts,
differing only in price, have been made for both bidders.
Pupic said the members on the HT Privatisation Commission had not
been shown the contracts, despite their requests.
The Commission decided the Telia-Telenor bid was better, and
permitted Deutsche Telekom to eliminate in future negotiations all
criteria bar the price. Pupic estimates Germany's Deutsche Telekom
will win the bid because it can offer more money.
According to Swedish-Norwegian Telia-Telenor's preliminary
estimate, HT's 35 percent of shares is worth a billion USD, while
Deutsche Telekom has set the price at US$800 million. Pupic
asserted neither bid will come even close to those figures.
Pupic believes the Croatian government should abandon the idea of
selling if the offered price falls below US$800 million.
He also reminded that Deutsche Telekom, after entering Hungary's
telecommunications, reduced the number of the company's employees
by half.
Both bidders have to submit their offers to the Croatian government
between 9 and 10 AM on September 23.
(hina) ha jn