Albania to renegotiate Albtelecom sale with Turkish consortium

TIRANA, Sept. 25 – Albanian authorities said that they would ask a Turkish consortium to renegotiate some terms of the sale of state phone company Albtelecom, but not the price of sale, said the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Industry. That was of course a move to resurrect a deal the government canceled last year. The ministry said that its negotiators would start soon talks with the Turkish consortium on some changes in the contract of Albtelecom sale, according to spokeswoman Iva Tico. She could not define the exact day. The Turkish Calik Enerji Telekomunikasyon A.S. consortium had been awarded the euro120 million 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 earlier this month, he said he had spoken with Ahmet Calik, the head of the consortium, and they had agreed to renegotiate the deal. Tico said that Albanian authorities would renegotiate the contract with the Turkish consortium rather than launching a new tender. “The Turkish company will be asked to accept changes of the terms of the contract which do not cover the price already agreed,” Tico said. Minister of Economy Genc Ruli has said if negotiations start soon the deal would be completed within six months. Albtelecom, which the government valued at about euro145 million in January 2004, is the only fixed-line telephone company in the country and it can also 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.
An Albanian private consortium of entrepreneurs has already expressed their will to buy Albtelecom with 150 million euro, a considerable increase compared to the 120 million euro that Calik may pay. Consortium managers say that they were ready to claim for the telecom two years ago but they were not qualified failing to meet one of the key criteria set by the government – to be a strategic operator in the telecommunication sector with long experience. But they claimed that the Turkish company had no experience in the sector too.