PPF and Telefonica deal ready for signing

The Czech financial group PPF and Spain´s Telefonica have made a deal on PPF´s takeover of a majority stake in Telefonica CR and the document may be signed any day, a well-informed source told the CTK news agency on Monday. The Financial Times reported earlier that the price of the 69 percent stake changing hands is put at 2.5 billion euro (64.6 billion crowns). After PPF signs the deal it is expected to offer to buy the remaining 31 percent, Financial Times wrote. This would raise the price of the contract by 1 billion euro (25.9 billion crowns) and Telefonica CR would be fully in private hands. As a result its shares would be withdrawn from public markets. Spain´s Telefonica is the largest provider of telecoms services in Europe and is also the number one operator in the Czech Republic. Its debts have made it sell some of its operations.