According to Bloomberg, Kosovo’s Ministry of Economy has selected Deutsche Telekom’s Croatian subsidiary T-Hrvatski Telekom and Telekom Austria to compete for a 75% stake in Kosovo Post and Telecom (PTK). The pair were selected from five bidders, the others being Albtelecom of Albania, Egypt’s Orascom Telecom and Yemen’s SabaFon.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, PTK is owned by the Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA); KTA was established in July 2002 to act as trustee for the owners and creditors of all public enterprises and their assets in Kosovo. In October 2008 the Kosovan government announced plans to privatise PTK and its wireless arm Vala. The following month a consortium consisting of TelCo and Wolf Theiss won an international tender to serve as transaction adviser. In March 2010 it was revealed that the tender would be launched in June, with the winner to be announced in September 2010. Five bids were made for the 75% stake, according to a statement by the Ministry of Economy and Finance: from Deutsche Telekom (via T-Hrvatski Telekom), Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, Turk Telekom (in partnership with parent group Calik and Albtelecom), Telekom Austria and Yemeni wireless network operator SabaFon. Despite the sale being expected to be completed by the end of the year, an early general election, which took place on 12 December 2010, meant the sale was pushed back into 2011. Money from the sale is expected to fund the ongoing construction of a highway linking Kosovo to Albania in the west and Serbia to the east.