Privatisation of the dominant Czech telecommunications operator, Czech Telecom, has been postponed. The government rejected the two best bids for its majority stake in the company.
Privatisation of the dominant Czech telecommunications operator, Czech Telecom, has been postponed. The government rejected the two best bids for its majority stake in the company. One of them, submitted by a consortium of Deutsche Bank, Danish operator TDC and the financial group Blackstone Group, fell through because of the low price. The other one, which came from the Swiss operator Swisscom and two financial investors, reportedly failed to meet the government's requirements. The cabinet also disliked the distribution of influence within the consortium. Analysts agree that the Czech government missed the best opportunity to sell Czech Telecom a few years ago when the market was on an up and that it may take several years until world's major telecommunications operators recover from financial exhaustion.
