Albania completing talks with Calik on Albtelecom sale

TIRANA, May 23 – Economy Minister Genc Ruli said that authorities were completing talks with a Turkish consortium on the sale of the state phone company, Albtelecom. Ruli said most of the issues were agreed upon and there remained only two or three additional items to discuss. Albanian authorities were expecting legal advice from an international consultant on the deal between Turk Telecom and Calik Enerji which merged some time ago.
The minister said following the sale the price of telephone service would not change. He added Calik had improved some articles in the contract such as eliminating the roaming monopoly, adding ways for consumer payments, and also assuring the government’s right to receive the revenues for the last two years since the first contract was signed.
Albanian authorities have resumed negotiations with the Turkish consortium on some terms of the Albtelecom sale in a move to resurrect a deal the government canceled in 2005 after the Democratic party-led government came to power. The Turkish Calik Enerji Telekomunikasyon A.S. consortium had been awarded the 120 million Euro contract to buy 76 percent of Albtelecom by Albania’s former Socialist government. Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s Democratic Party-led government canceled the contract after his party took power in September 2005, claiming irregularities in the sale. The government hired international auditors to investigate the deal. After Berisha visited Turkey last year, he and the Turks had agreed to renegotiate the deal, rather than launching a new tender.
Albtelecom, which the government valued at about 145 million euros in January 2004, is the only fixed-line telephone company in the country. It also may operate a mobile phone network.
Calik Enerji was the only international company that bid for Albtelecom. Ten other companies from Slovenia, South Korea, the United States, Kuwait and Ireland had expressed interest but did not submit bids.