Ten suitors for Cesky stake

The sale of a 51.1% stake in the Czech Republic’s national PTO Cesky Telecom has attracted the interest of ten companies, according to The Czech Republic National Property Fund (FNM). When the deadline for collecting an information pack about the same arrived last Friday, interest had been registered by six telecoms operators – Swisscom, TDC, Belgacom, Vodafone Group, Telefonica and France Telecom – as well as four financial groups – Citigroup Venture Capital, Czech financial group PPF, SPO Partners and a consortium comprising Blackstone Group, CVC Capital Partners and Providence. According to the FNM, all ten have signed confidentiality agreements with the state’s advisers, allowing them to collect the information memorandum on Cesky Telecom after paying a fee of EUR30,000. The ten now have little over a week to table their initial bids. The stake has been valued at around EUR2 billion.