ZAGREB, Sept 23 (Hina) - A decision on the bid of the Swedish-Norwegian consortium Telia-Telenor to buy 35 percent of shares of the Croatian Telecommunications (HT) will be made within next seven days as of September 23.
ZAGREB, Sept 23 (Hina) - A decision on the bid of the Swedish-
Norwegian consortium Telia-Telenor to buy 35 percent of shares of
the Croatian Telecommunications (HT) will be made within next seven
days as of September 23.#L#
During the closed session Croatia's Government considered this
only bid for the purchase of HT shares, and concluded it would need
additional consultations and expert opinions about this offer,
said the deputy head of the Croatian Government's public media and
communications office, Igor Mrduljas, following Thursday's long
session.
At this morning's public opening there was solely the bid of Telia-
Telenor, and there was no bid of Deutsche Telekom.
Although it was announced this morning that immediately after
opening the bids the Croatia Government would decide whether to
accept the US$ 611-million bid, in the afternoon reporters were
informed by Mrduljas about a short statement from the Government.
The Government will make the decision on the matter within seven
days, and this decision can be made not before tomorrow and not
later than the coming Thursday, Mrduljas explained.
Present at the procedure of the public opening were Croatia's Vice
Premier Borislav Skegro, who is a member of the council for the HT
privatisation, the HT Management's President Ivica Mudrinic and
Ambassadors of Sweden and Norway.
First it was explained that the procedure of opening bids for the
purchase of 35 percent of HT shares was described by rules which the
Government approved and forwarded to the bidders on September 2.
These rules include a model-application for the bidder in which
they should put the offered price for the HT shares and confirm that
they will sign documentation for conducting a transaction in the
form they received on 17 September.
The biggest fix price and the acceptance of transaction documents
are accordingly the only criterion for choosing the successful bid.
This bid will be additionally considered by the Croatian Government
that is not obliged to accept it.
It was announced that Deutsche Telekom, that had participated in
the biding procedure from the very beginning, failed to offer its
bid within the time term defined by bidding rules, neither did its
representatives appear at Thursday's opening of bids.
Therefore, the procedure continued this morning with the only
bidder, Telia-Telenor. The commission established that the bid was
in accordance with rules and that Norwegian company was offering
611 million dollars for the 35 percent of HT shares. Then, the
opening was completed.
At 16:30 hours reporters received the aforementioned statement
from Mrduljas.
Epic, the consultant of Deutsche Telekom for possible purchase of
the HT shares, said that on September 21 this German company had
decided not to offer its bid. Epic briefly added that Deutsche
Telekom remained interested in the privatisation of the Croatian
Telecommunications on the base of the mutual interest.
(hina) ms