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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 |
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Possible sale of Greek telco to Deutsche Telekom could be a step too far for the German giant.
Deutsche Telekom has spent €2.5bn on a 19.99% stake in OTE, the dominant and often hapless Greek national telco. DT has waded in by buying the 19.99% stake off Marfin Investment Group.
This is seen as a precursor to a full blown takeover of OTE, which would necessarily involve a DT bid for the Greek government’s 28% stake in the company. That would cost €4bn or more, since the shares held in the treasuries of Athens have gilt edges. The state would sell the stake but the legacy of jobsworths and corruption would sit ill inside the ‘pink’ portfolio.
Deutsche Telekom, in buying out private equity investors (PEIs) in Greek telecom, may show a shifting balance of power in telco M&A activity – as we’ve been saying since the beginning of this year (click here). It’s also attempting to buy into the EU’s most troubled telco, as we said most lately at the end of last year (click here).
Jim Chalmers
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