Turk Telekom Hires JP Morgan to Advise It on Possible Acquisition of Macedonia’s Cosmofon - Media

No further details were available.

OTE recently announced it plans to sell Cosmofon to comply with Macedonia’s antitrust regulations following the acquisition of a controlling stake in OTE by Germany's Deutsche Telekom.

Macedonia’s Commission for the Protection of Competition said that local wireless operators T-Mobile and Cosmofon collectively have nearly 90% of the Macedonian market, placing them in a monopoly position. T-Mobile Macedonia is a subsidiary of the country's leading fixed-line operator, Makedonski Telekom AD, majority-owned by Magyar Telekom. Magyar Telekom, in turn, is a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary.

Cosmofon is the second largest wireless operator in Macedonia servicing over 660,000 customers by the end of September. It is fully-owned by OTE.

Telekom Slovenije and Telekom Austria, too, have said they are interested in the planned sale of Cosmofon.

Cosmofon, which started operation in 2003, competes with wireless operators Т-Mobile Macedonia and Telekom Austria’s Vip Operator DOOEL Skopje in the country of two million people.

Turk Telekom claims to be the Europe’s fifth and the world’s 13-th largest fixed telephone operator.