ZAGREB (Croatia), November 12 (SeeNews) – Croatia’s second largest fixed-line telecom by users, Optima Telekom, said on Monday that its revenue through September rose 102% on the year to 228 million kuna ($45 million/31 million euro), and that it plans to go public by the end of the year.
“The constant growth of Optima Telekom and the successful issue of corporate bonds at the beginning of the year led to preparations for initial public offering of shares that will take place by the end of 2007,” Optima said in a statement.
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The company’s current owner Matija Martic will maintain a strategic share, the statement said. The capital raised through the initial public offering will be used for investments, acquisitions on the Croatian market and to repay credits, it added.
“We cannot disclose details about the IPO prior to approval of its prospectus by the [country’s financial watchdog] HANFA,” Optima’s public relations officer Hrvoje Lovric told SeeNews.
For 2007 Optima expects a 62% growth of revenue. The company said that it has a 12% market share with more than 200,000 users.
The Croatian telecommunications regulator granted Optima Telekom a 30-year concession on the provision of fixed public telephone services in November 2004, which made the company the second operator of fixed telephony in the country of 4.4 million people.
(1 euro= 7.3495 Croatian kuna)