Three parties have reportedly lodged bids for the Serbian and Montenegrin units of Telenor that were recently acquired by investment group PPF.
Business site Investitor.me named the three candidates as operators Telekom Austria and Telekom Srbija, along with UK investment fund BC Partners. The latter has a footprint in the region via local firm United Group, while Telekom Austria operates Vip Mobile in Serbia. Telekom Srbija intends to merge the businesses with its m:tel unit in Montenegro.
PPF acquired Telenor’s CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) mobile units in July for €2.8 billion, with the deal also including Telenor operations in Hungary and Bulgaria, along with the Nordic group’s regional network infrastructure and IT business.
Numerous operators had been implicated as potential buyers before PPF and Telenor reached an agreement, and Investitor.me noted that even after the deal was agreed the investment group had received several casual enquiries regarding an acquisition of the units.
A Telekom Srbija source told Investitor.me that the company had expressed its interest in an acquisition but was holding out for a response from PPF, saying “they [PPF] do not have a clear answer, and we wait patiently.”
