Government not to sell Telekom below agreed minimum price

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said today that the Serbian government would not sell Telekom below the agreed minimum price of EUR 1.4 billion for the 51% stake in that company.

Speaking at a press conference in the Government of Serbia, Mr. Cvetkovic did not want to say anything about whether any progress had been made in the negotiations with Telecom Austria on the improvement of the company's offer.

Telecom Austria was the only bidder on the tender for the sale of Telekom Austria and it offered the price of EUR 950 million for the 51% stake in the company and EUR 450 million worth of investments.

Commenting on the statement that the acquisition of Telekom Srbija would provide the monopoly position in the mobile telephony to Telecom Austria since it was already the owner of the mobile operator VIP Mobile in Serbia, Cvetkovic said that the problem in that sector was not monopoly but possible abuse of that position.

- The task of regulatory bodies is to prevent the abuse of a dominant position in the market - the prime minister pointed out.

He added that any buyer of Telekom Srbija would hold the monopoly in the fixed telephony since that company had the 98% share in the market, pointing out that the only question was how to prevent the abuse of that position.