Telecom sale attracts six interested parties

Six parties – Telefonica, Telmex, CANTV, Cablecentro, Phone One and ETB – have purchased bidding rules for the sale of Colombian state owned telco Colombia Telecommunicaciones (Telecom). Interested companies must submit comments to the government by Friday, with the final terms set to be released on 17 March. The winning bidder will receive 50% plus one share of Telecom’s equity, plus 7% of the company’s EBITDA until 2010 and 3% from 2011 onwards. The winner will be required to pay off Telecom’s pension debt of COP7.58 trillion (USD3.37 billion) in 17 annual instalments.