Romania chooses consultant in privatization of telecom company Romtelecom

A consortium made of brokerage firm SSIF Swiss Capital S.A., investment bank UBS Limited, law firm Mușat și Asociații and brokerage firm BT Securities S.A. has been chosen as the consultant in the privatization process of telecom operator Romtelecom, according to a statement of the Ministry for Information Society (MSI). The consultant’s fee will have a fixed and a variable component. “The financial offer of the consortium declared winner has a fixed component of zero RON and a variable component of 2 percent, with VAT, that applies to the gross profit,” reads the ministry’s statement. The other consortium that submitted an offer in this process was made of Deutsche Bank and Raiffeisen Capital & Investment SA. However, their offer was disqualified because some of the required documents were not submitted, according to MSI. Telecom company Romtelecom is 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. Romtelecom has posted third quarter revenues of EUR 152.6 million, 0.6 percent less than the same period last year, while the company’s nine-month revenues were at EUR 446 million, down from EUR 470 million in September 2012. The operational profit was of EUR 17.9 million during the first nine months of 2012, down on the EUR 46.8 million in the first nine months of 2012. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com