Government suspended a tender for the Telekom sale adviser

Belgrade  May 25. 2010. (Serbia Today) - Serbian government decided to  suspend a tender for the selection of an adviser in the sale of a portion of the state-owned shares in Telekom Srbija. Beta news agency reported that the only bid made by a consortium headed by Citigroup Global Markets was faulty. The government commission established that, by not signing the contract model, the bidder had not acted in accordance with the competition documentation, so the offer is formally considered faulty. The government also announced that the consortium would be urged to correct the technical part of its offer. Telecommunications Minister Jasna Matić announced that the government would engage in direct negotiations with the bidder. A press release on Thursday said the government had adopted a report by the commission for selecting the adviser, which assessed the technical part of the bid. The tender to select an adviser for selling state-owned shares in Telekom Srbija was published on April 12, and admitted bids from investment banks that in the last three years had at least one transaction from telecommunications companies from Europe, the Middle East or the Commonwealth of Independent States, worth more than EUR 500mn. The consortium led by Citigroup Global Markets was the only bidder. The government of Serbia owns 80 percent of shares in Telekom Srbija. The remaining 20 percent of shares is owned by the Greek OTE company, 30 percent of which belongs to Deutsche Telekom. The government made the decision to sell 40 percent of state capital in the company on March 26.