Private equity fund Mid Europa Partners is planning to sell Hungary’s second largest fixed line operator Invitel, after acquiring a controlling stake in the company in 2009, TMT Finance reports. The company is now valued at around EUR200 million-EUR300 million (USD275.4 million-USD431.0 million), but it is thought that Mid Europa is willing to see its Hungarian assets broken up into smaller pieces to boost sale prospects. A formal sales process is expected to begin in the second or third quarter of 2014, with Hungarian mobile operators T-Mobile (owned by Magyar Telekom), Vodafone and Telenor all named as likely bidders. Meanwhile, Romania Cable Systems (RCS&RDS) has been named as an outside bet.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, in December 2009 Mid Europa Partners offered to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Invitel Holdings, having acquired a 74.4% majority stake from Danish telephone company TDC in September the same year. TeleGeography notes that during the course of the last 18 months, Mid Europa has offloaded its stakes in T-Mobile Czech Republic (February 2014), SBB/Telemach Group (March 2013) and Orange Austria (January 2013), leaving Bite, a mobile operator active in Lithuania and Latvia as its only remaining telecoms assets.
Divested Mid Europa assets include: Aster of Poland (sold in September 2011), MobiFon (Romania, March 2005) and Oskar Mobile (Czech Republic, March 2005).