August 10 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Hrvatski Telekom (HT) [ZSE:HT-R-A] will hire an investment bank to lead further the process for the sale of its 17.41% stake and the 36.90% stake held by Zagrebacka Banka [ZSE:ZABA] in Optima Telekom [ZSE:OPTE-R-A], the competition authority AZTN has said.
AZTN was informed by Deloitte d.o.o. that HT will launch the procedure of hiring an investment bank in order to prevent a possible delay in meeting its obligations prescribed by an AZTN decision from June 2017 on the allowed market concentration between HT and Optima, the competition authority said in a statement on Friday.
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It added that it cannot and must not announce any information concerning the ongoing tender procedure for Optima's sale.
HT opened the tender at the end of January in compliance with AZTN's 2017 decision, inviting bids for the 12,090,190 Optima shares it holds, and for Zagrebacka Banka's 25,625,853 shares, each of 10 kuna ($1.6/1.3 euro) in par value.
Under the June 2017 AZTN decision, HT was obliged to launch the sale of Optima in January 2020 by way of international tender. In particular, it was obliged to offer for sale its 17.4% stake, along with the right to also sell the 36.9% stake of Zagrebacka Banka in Optima, in line with an earlier agreement between HT and the bank. If there is no interest in the sale of Optima six months after its launch, or if the submitted bids are unacceptable, HT is obliged to hire an investment bank to lead the sale process.
In March, HT said that the tender for the sale of Optima Telekom had expired, but declined to provide any details on its outcome. It only noted that the public announcement of the international advertisement represents HT's fulfilment of a regulatory obligation already known to the public and is not aimed at making the complete sales process public.
Following the announcement by AZTN that HT is going to hire an investment bank to lead the sale further, Optima's shares plunged 21.19% to close at 4.65 kuna on the Zagreb Stock Exchange on Friday, while HT's shares closed 0.92% higher at 164.50 kuna.
Shares of Optima and HT did not trade at opening on Monday.
Back in 2017, AZTN prolonged HT's temporary management rights over Optima by three years, until July 10, 2021. If HT fails to complete the sale of Optima by this deadline, the telco should transfer its management rights to Zagrebacka Banka, or a third non-affiliated party, and authorise it to sell its stake in Optima.
(1 euro = 7.46400 kuna)