FT joins private equity consortium to bid for Cesky Telecom

France Telecom (FT) has announced that it will join the Blackstone Group, CVC Partners and Providence Equity Partners in a consortium which will bid for a 51.1% stake in Cesky Telecom. The FT-led group will join Swisscom, Belgacom and Telefonica on the shortlist of possible candidates for the stake; having narrowed the list down from ten interested parties, the government now has until the end of this month to decide on a winner. Cesky Telecom is the Czech Republic’s leading telco, with around 3.5 wireline customers and 4.4 million wireless subscribers at the end of 2004.