Kosovo receives five bids for telecom sale

PRISTINA, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Kosovo government said it has received five bids from foreign companies interested in buying 75 percent of its state-owned telecom company, the ministry of economy and finance said in a statement on Monday as quoted by BalkanInsight.
Deutsche Telekom DTEGN.DE through its partner in Croatia, Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA) from Egypt, Turk Telecom (TTKOM.IS) and Calik Group through their partner AlbTelecom from Albania, Telekom Austria (TELA.VI) and Yemeni mobile operator SabaFon are bidding for Kosovo telecom, the statement said.
Kosovo plans to conclude the sale of its telecom in December. Last year, PTK, which also provides internet services. won the contract to be the fourth mobile operator in neighbouring Albania but has not started operating.
Minister of Economy and Finance Ahmet Shala said that the government was hoping to get 300-600 million euros from the sale.
Kosovo telecom is has around one million mobile and 100,000 landline customers.
Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has no country code and international calls go through Monaco, Serbia and Slovenia.