Govt to shake up Hondutel management following failed stake sale

The government of Honduras has revealed plans to appoint a new management team to run the country’s ailing state-owned national PTO Hondutel. According to an emailed statement from President Porfirio Lobo’s office, the government is poised to name the team it will install to ‘expand and modernise’ phone services at Hondutel. The news comes hard on the heels of this week’s announcement that the telco failed to receive any bids for its sale of a 49% stake in its recently established mobile joint venture Ehmovitel – Movitelh (Empresa Hondurena de Telefonia Movil). As reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, last month Hondutel extended the tender for its proposed sale of Ehmovitel – Movitelh until 25 January. Tender bids were originally due on 2 January, with the highest bidder being required to provide a USD5 million guarantee. No fewer than 13 different companies purchased the tender documents for a fee of HNL10,000 (USD500), but no bids were actually forthcoming by the 25 January deadline. The firms lining up were thought to include Fideco-Datang Mobile (Guatemala), Datang Mobile (China), LR (Israel), and Rhino (US).