The Romanian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCTI) is seeking an international investment bank for the privatisation of Romtelecom.
The privatisation will be achieved through the sale of MCTI'™s shareholding in Romtelecom which, it is envisaged, will be effected by way of an Initial Public Offering (IPO). It is anticipated that the IPO will involve an institutional international offer of securities, accompanied by a listing on an international stock exchange and the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Candidate investment banks should submit expressions of interest by 25th of August 2005. The text of the announcement may be found at MCTI website.
Romtelecom is the incumbent fixed-line telephony operator in Romania, has a share capital of 318,464,490 RON (approx EUR92.83 million), with 31,846,449 shares at a par value of 10 RON and had a turnover of 333,452,848,888.30 RON (approx EUR97.2 billion) in 2004. The company had 15,266 emplayees at the beginning of July 2005. The government owns 45.99% of Romtelecom shares, since 2003 when Greek OTE became the majority shareholder with 54.01%.
Romtelecom also owns 30% in GSM operator Cosmorom, soon to be relaunched under the management of CosmOTE, which owns 70% after transferring to Cosmorom EUR120 million on July 7, 2005.
The Government plans to list the shares it owns in Romtelecom on the stock exchange by April or March 2006.
Also the 100% state-owned national radio communications company SN Radiocomunicatii SA (SNR) wil be privatized by the end of 2006, while the 100% state-owned postal services company CN Poșta Română is expected to be privatised by 2008.
The processes of selecting the international consultants to audit the 3 companies and propose the strategies for privatisation started on July 14, 2005, when the government approved the Government Decisions according to which for the listing of the shares owned at Romtelecom and for the privatization of SNR a consultancy company will be contracted, while in the matter of the reorganization, preparation and privatization of the CN Poșta Română SA more consultants could be hired.
Zsolt Nagy, the Minister of Communications said that the privatization of Poșta Română may also include an IPO. 'We want to attract a strategic investor, and later we allow for the listing on the stock exchange of the shares of Poșta Română,' stated Zsolt Nagy in a comment on the Government Decisions. He also stated for the local press that the auction for consultancy services for SNR will start in September 2005, while the reorganisation process of Posta Romana will start this fall, whith the privatisation process beginning in 2006. The state will either want to keep a minority stake in Posta Romana or include certain clauses regarding universal service provision in the privatisation contract, said Zsolt Nagy.
