BANJA LUKA, Bosnia: Eleven firms, including France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom-owned Magyar Telekom, have shown interest in the sale of Bosnia s Telekom Srpske, the government said on Tuesday. These and five other firms, including Egypt s Orascom, are yet to buy the tender documentation enabling them to bid by Oct. 4 for a 65 percent stake in Bosnia s second biggest telecom operator. Telekom Austria, Telekom Srbija, Russia s Sistema and Norway s Telenor have already paid for the documentation, the Serb Republic privatization agency said in a statement. Telenor bought Serbia s mobile operator Mobi 63 for 1.51 billion euros ($1.94 billion) in July, beating Telekom Austria after Orascom dropped out of the bidding. Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik reiterated on Tuesday that the government would only accept bids of at least 400 million euros for Telekom Srpske. But I expect the price to be higher, he told a news conference. Telekom Srpske controls a 35 percent market share in both fixed and mobile telephony in a country of close to 4 million people. It had 2005 revenues of 346.3 million Bosnian marka ($292.2 million) and net profit of 80.8 million marka. The government of the Muslim-Croat federation, Bosnia s other autonomous half, had planned to privatize majority stakes in market leader BH Telecom and HT Mostar but the region s parliament blocked this last week. Reuters
Orascom one of 11 firms interested in Bosnian Serb telco sale
