How soon is OTE going to be privatised?
Speculation over the fate of OTE has reached an all time high when earlier this year the Greek government sought startegic partners in an effort to make the organisation more competitive. An expensive early pension plan for staff failed to attract a large investor and has not reduced the risk of falling behind in terms of infrastructure and service quality against similar European companies. The current position of OTE could be described as extremely critical for its future. The stock market euphoria of the end of the nineties and the need for more cash of the Greek government to meet EU targets of this decade have brought repetitive sales of government packages. The current Greek government holding to OTE is a currently low 28%.
MIG (Marfin Investment Group) has become the catalyst in this situation. It currently holds 19% and has made no secret of its intention to buy even more and have a board seat. The Greek government has blocked this ambition, firstly by completely integrating Cosmote (the mobile telephony branch) in its financial structure, and secondly by introducing legislation that limits MIG’s stake to less than 20%. The later is a controversial move in terms of EU laws. Additionally, a large European telecoms organisation remains the best option for a strategic partnership. Such a move would mean the blocking of MIG. Recent rumours of talks with Deutsche Telekom have not been confirmed but it is very possible that 2008 will be the year of changes for the Greek telecoms market. What is also clear is the intention of completely privatising OTE, in which case the Greek state would correctly concentrate on the unbiased operation of EETT (the Greek regulation authority) in a more competitive market with more opportunities for the smaller alternative players. As for now, OTE just yesterday announced full ADSL2+ internet download speeds of 24 Mbps, which would under current circumstances mean the starvation of its competitors and the freeze of any intention for private optical network investments…
Link 1: Reporter
Link 2: Telegeography
[...] run has already covered the situation with OTE prior to today’s news, here. MIG had been methodically buying OTE shares for some time with the ultimate aim of finally [...]
March 17th, 2008 at 1:45 pm[...] run has already covered the situation with OTE prior to today’s news, here. MIG had been methodically buying OTE shares for some time with the ultimate aim of finally [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm