Five law firms in race to provide legal assistance in Romania's Romtelecom minority share sale

Five law firms have submitted offers to provide legal services in the sale of the Romanian state's remaining shares in telecom operator Romtelecom. Dentons (former Salans), David & Baias, Bulboaca & Asociatii, Florea & Asociatii and Bostina & Asociatii all submitted offers, which were opened late last week at the Ministry of Information. The value of the legal services contract for this privatization was estimated between EUR 30,000 and EUR 113,000 over the next 24 months. The winning law firm will provide legal assistance for the Ministry of Information in drafting the documents needed for the sale, as well as analyzing and providing legal advice on the documents created by the financial consultant which will be selected by the Ministry. Telecom company Romtelecom is now majority owned by Greek OTE. This is the third time the state has tried to get the second leg of Romtelecom's privatization underway, after a first attempt in 2005 and a second in 2008. The state will first hire a consultant to prepare the sale of its 45.99 percent share in the landline operator. The main option for the country at this point is to sell the shares via listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, but options might change after a consultant is hired to maximize the state's profit. The consultant will be either an investment bank or a consortium made of an investment bank and a law firm, which will support the state throughout the privatization, creating all the documents, developing the privatization strategy and proposing the best method to achieve its sale. The consultant will be paid from the Government's budget after the sale process is done, using the proceedings from the sale. The value of the contract has not yet announced. Romtelecom, part of the Greek group OTE, ended the second quarter of this year with EUR 150 million in revenues and an EBITDA Pro Forma of almost EUR 35 million. The second quarter revenues were down 4.9 percent on the same quarter in 2012. For the first six months, Romtelecom's revenues were down 7 percent, to some EUR 294 million. The drop was however lower than OTE's revenues decrease on the fixed line operations in Greece, both for the second quarter, and for the first six months. editor@romania-insider.com