January 18 (SeeNews) - Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor is holding talks for a package sale of its units in Southeast Europe, Sofia-based media reported on Thursday.
"Telenor is holding talks with a U.S. fund for the sale of its business in Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro for 2.0 billion euro ($2.45 billion)," media outlet Capital said in its online edition, quoting specialised international information and news outlet Mergermarket.
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According to the media report, Telenor is in exclusive talks with a single bidder selected in December.
Telenor bought Bulgarian mobile operator Globul from Greece's OTE for 717 million euro in 2013. In November 2014, Globul was rebranded to Telenor Bulgaria.
In the first nine months of 2017, Telenor Bulgaria's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) edged down 0.2% year-on-year to 903 million Norwegian crowns.
On the Bulgarian mobile segment, Telenor competes with Mtel, the local unit of Telekom Austria, and Bulgarian telecommunications group BTC, which operates under the brand name Vivacom.
In Serbia and Montenegro, Telenor's combined EBITDA edged up to 1.1 billion Norwegian crowns in the first nine months of 2017, from 1.09 billion Norwegian crowns in the like period of 2016.
Telenor's wireless unit competes with Telekom Srbija's mobile arm, MTS, and VIP Mobile, a unit of Telekom Austria Group, on the Serbian market of some 7.2 million people.
Telenor's main competitor in Montenegro is T-Mobile Crna Gora, owned by the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom, Magyar Telekom. M:tel, the third mobile operator in the Adriatic state of some 630,000 people, is majority owned by Telekom Srbija.
($ = 0.8161 euro)