| Home |
| About Us |
| Latest News |
| Features |
| R-100 Index |
| Newsdesk |
| Free Email Alerts |
| - - - - - - - |
| Wireless Business Review |
| - - - - - - - |
| Greek travesty? |
|
|
| Friday, 07 December 2007 | |
|
Broken eggs in the EU’s very own basket-case telco. But is this about unlocking potential or taking over droit de seigneur?
Go to Greece and ask the Greeks and you’ll soon realise that state telco OTE is hopeless. When so-called ‘accession’ countries sought EU entry at the end of the 1990s, they were confidently able to rebut challenges to their telecom competence by pointing out that, by any measure, they were already doing better than OTE. The Greek government reluctantly began releasing tranches of OTE’s equity through successive privatisations in the 1990s. In this regard it was slightly ahead of the European game... although the share sales were limited and cosy affairs rather than the mass privatisations seen in the EU’s major market. A laughable regulatory framework made the cosiness even more comfortable. A decade later, life looks set to become more difficult. Marfin Investment Group (MIG) yesterday trawled the market to take its stake in OTE to 19%. The government remains the dominant shareholder with a 28% holding. In building its stake, MIG has been squawking that OTE is badly run. The implication, in a story that will not see a quick resolution, is that MIG-appointed chiefs could do better than OTE’s incumbents. OTE retorts that MIG is challenging the state’s ultimate control of the company. Alternative explanation? Running a dominant telco in Greece is not just about run-of-the-mill revenue generation and creating shareholder value. We’ll leave it at that for now. MIG has called for an EGM that seemingly seeks to unseat the current OTE board led by Panagis Vourloumis. MIG says: “During the last few months, OTE’s Management has been taking crucial decisions about the future of OTE, without consulting its shareholders. Our initiative to convene the General Assembly was taken when we were informed that even the buy-out of the minority shareholding of COSMOTE and the extremely sizeable short-term borrowing, according to Mr. Vourloumis’ official statement, was decided without the previous approval of the Greek State.” It adds, “we do not question the sovereign right of the Greek State on OTE, our initiative will be limited, once we assess the data provided to us by the Management of OTE, to providing the shareholders with our views and information, and to exchanging opinions. Under no circumstances do we intend to challenge the final resolutions of the Greek State by exercising our voting power against the Greek State.” MIG insisted yesterday that “our relationship with the Greek State is excellent” and stressed that “[Vourloumis] is ultimately accountable to the shareholders of the company he works for, rather than being their boss.” Ouch! Battle lines drawn: to the victor, the spoils. Jim Chalmers |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|