December 11 (SeeNews) - A US investment fund has expressed interest in the acquisition of shareholding interest in state-controlled Telekom Srbija but has placed no bid thus far, Serbia's trade minister Rasim Ljajic said.
There is no bid for Telekom Srbija on the table but there is interest, Ljajic said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug on Monday.
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Serbian media reported earlier on Monday that US private equity and venture capital firm Ripplewood Advisors has placed a bid for the acquisition of 20% interest in both Telekom Srbija and the country's lender Komercijalna Banka [BEL:KMBN].
"The submission of the bid depends on the business interests of Telekom Srbija, on the one side, and of the US fund, on the other. But at this moment, there is no official bid, there is only interest," Ljajic said.
The Serbian government owns a 58.11% stake in the capital of Telekom Srbija directly. The company has a treasury stock of 20%, Serbian citizens control 14.95%, while 6.94% of the company's capital is owned by employees, according to data from the annual financial report of Telekom Srbija for 2017.
Ljajic also said that he was not in charge of Komercijalna Banka and that he did not know whether an offer for the purchase of a stake in the bank had been made.
Ripplewood Advisors, formerly known as Kleinwort Benson Advisors, was founded in 1995 by Timothy Clark Collins and is based in New York. Collins is a former member of the board of directors of US investment bank and financial services corporation Citigroup.
The Serbian government said earlier this year it plans to complete the sale of Komercijalna Banka by the end of September 2019. The authorities will adopt a decision to initiate the privatisation of Komercijalna by end-February 2019 and the tender is expected to be launched by end-June 2019. The government owns 41.74% of the capital of Komercijalna, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development controls a 24.43% stake.
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