Turk Telekom Places Preliminary Bid To Acquire Macedonia’s Cosmofon - Media

Turk Telekom said it had placed a bid in a statement it sent to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the daily reported.

Earlier this month, Turk Telekom said it has hired JP Morgan as a financial advisor in the possible acquisition of Cosmofon.

The Greek telecom group OTE recently announced plans to sell Cosmofon to comply with Macedonia’s anti-trust regulations following the acquisition of a controlling stake in OTE by Germany's Deutsche Telekom.

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

Cosmofon is the second largest wireless operator in Macedonia servicing over 660,000 customers at 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 says it is Europe’s fifth and the world’s thirteenth largest fixed-line operator.