No sale of phone companies expected

TIRANA, March 30 – “Calik Holding” that owns the Albtelecom and also mobile operator Eagle Mobile dismissed claims from the Albanian Daily that it would sell shares in its investment in Albania, “Albtelecom” and “Eagle Mobile”.
“In 2007 with the purchase of ‘Albtelecom’, the largest operator of fixed telephony and internet, and within this company ‘ Eagle Mobile ‘, we aimed at making it a more selective operator in Albania and invested more than 50 million Euros,” the company said in a statement.
“Eagle Mobile” has in 11 months about 386,000 subscribers and Albtelecom has had more than 18,000 clients after it set the ADSL internet link since December of last year.
“Calik Holding sees Albania as a door to Europe and is following his investments full-speed in the Balkans,” the statement said.
A local daily said that the Turkish company was planning to sell the two telephone companies.
Turkey’s Calik Enerji Telekomunikasyon AS. consortium holds a 76 percent stake in Albtelecom, which covers ten percent of Albania’s 3.2 million population.
The Turkish consortium also owns Albania’s third mobile phone operator, Eagle Mobile, which began operating last month.