Telenor Group is looking to sell its wholly-owned Bulgarian operation Telenor (previously GloBul) to an unnamed US fund, with the potential disposals of its assets in Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary also on the table, Novinite writes citing a report by Mergermarket. According to three unnamed sources, the four units could be worth up to EUR2 billion (USD2.4 billion). A single source also revealed that a prospective buyer was selected on an exclusive basis in December. US fund KKR, which owns a satellite business in the region, was initially linked to the deal, though a Norwegian source denied its participation in the potential takeover.
TeleGeography notes that in June 2012 Greece-based Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) revealed that it was looking to offload the Bulgarian telco GloBul and its affiliated retail chain Germanos Telecom Bulgaria as part of its efforts to refinance USD4.3 billion of debt. At the end of April 2013, OTE named Telenor Group as the winner of the controlling stake in GloBul and Germanos with a EUR717 million bid. The deal was concluded on 31 July 2013, after obtaining merger control approval from the EC.