Serbia’s economy minister Nebojsa Ciric says that his country will benefit from the re-acquisition of a 20% interest of Telekom Srbija from Greek firm OTE. According to local news agency Beta, Ciric says that the move will help Serbia consolidate control in the operator, though there have not been any talks over the matter with OTE. Serbia controls 80% of shares of Telekom Srbija. OTE is part controlled by Deutsche Telekom.
Ciric expects Telekom Srbija to soon complete technical work for distribution of free shares to citizens as well as the operator’s working and ex-employees. The deal would see 15% of the company’s shares being distributed to around 4.8m Serbian citizens. Existing and former staff would obtain 6.5% of shares, according to the report.
Earlier in 2011 Telekom Austria was interested in bidding for a stake in Telekom Srbija, but disagreed with the Serbian government’s high valuation.
