June 8 (SeeNews) - The supervisory board of Slovenian state holding company SDH, which coordinates the privatization process in the country, should decide on Wednesday on the sale of a 72.75% stake in Telekom Slovenije [LJE:TLSG] to equity fund Cinven, Ljubljana-based media reported on Monday, quoting SDH's chief supervisor, Samo Lozej.
After last week SDH said it will ask the government in Ljubljana to decide on the sale of the Telekom Slovenije stake to the private equity fund, the government over the weekend responded that the decision should be taken by the SDH supervisors, news daily Finance reported.
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In April, SDH said a single binding bid had been handed in for the sale of the stake in the incumbent telco. Cinven later confirmed it had placed the offer.
Cinven has indicated that after June 10, due to constraints of its financing providers, it cannot commit to stand behind its offer. The equity fund also said it had invited the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to co-invest in the transaction and help the company achieve a successful transition from public to private ownership.
Telekom Slovenije's consolidated net profit dropped to 1.6 million euro ($1.78 million) in 2014 from 51.1 million euro a year earlier due to the effects from one-off events.
In 2013, Telekom Slovenije was placed on a list of 15 state firms earmarked for privatisation.
Cinven, set up in 1977, has offices in Guernsey, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.
Telekom Slovenije was trading up 1.01% at 100 euro by 1049 CET on the Ljubljana bourse on Monday.
($=0.8974 euro)