Russia’s Sistema Group, which an owner of Russia’s MTS group, is apparently looking to expand to Austria. The company is reportedly looking to buy Telekom Austria Group in a deal worth in excess of $6 billion.
According to the Austrian Krone newspaper, Sistema was prepared to pay significantly over the current share price, which values the company at around $6 billion. In comparison, when Egypt’s Orascom Telecom tried to acquire Telekom Austria in September 2008, it was valued at $9.8 billion.
The Austrian state-owned holding company, OeIAG holds 27% of the carrier, but doesn’t have a mandate to unload its stake at the moment. However, with three-quarters of the company available on the stock market, it would be possible for Sistema to buy the company regardless of OeIAG’s and the government of Austria’s intentions.
For the record, Telekom Austria has operations in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Macedonia, Belarus and Czech Republic. And since Sistema already owns an operator in Belarus, the government there would almost certainly require them to sell one of its two networks if it were to buy Telekom Austria.
[Via: CellularNews]