June 5 (SeeNews) - Slovenian state holding company SDH said it will ask the government in Ljubljana to decide on the sale of a 72.75% stake in Telekom Slovenije [LJE:TLSG] to equity fund Cinven.
In April, SDH, which is coordinating the sale process, 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.
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SDH said in a statement late on Thursday its supervisory and management boards consider the sale of Telekom Slovenije a "suitable and economically justified" move.
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.
SDH will convene a general meeting in the shortest time possible, submitting for its approval the proposal for the sale of Telekom Slovenije's shares owned by SDH and the state.
If the sale approval is granted the company will have an experienced and responsible owner from the telecommunication industry, providing Telekom Slovenije with significant investments to the development of its telecommunication infrastructure and networks for the provision of broadband fixed and mobile networks, thus contributing to Slovenian competitiveness in the region and more widely in Europe, SDH said.
Telekom Slovenije's consolidated net profit dropped to 1.6 million euro ($1.8 million) in 2014 from 51.1 million euro a year earlier due to the effects from one-off events.
In 2013, Telekom Slovenije was placed on a list of 15 state firms earmarked for privatisation.
Cinven, set up in 1977, has offices in Guernsey, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.
($=0.8874 euro)