Infoquest boosts stake in subsidiary Quest Wireless to 70 percent
The IT firm Infoquest said yesterday it had acquired an additional 10 percent of subsidiary Quest Wireless as part of its plans to move into telecom services and that it had an initial agreement to buy another 10 percent of the firm. Infoquest said the transfer of Starcom’s 10-percent stake in Quest Wireless had been completed, but did not disclose the sum involved. Following this transfer, Infoquest’s stake in Quest Wireless increases to 70 percent from the 60 percent which it held initially, the company said in a statement. The company also said it and Quest shareholder Hellenic Technodomiki had initially agreed that Infoquest acquire the construction firm’s 10-percent stake in Quest Wireless. Infoquest teamed up with Starcom, Hellenic Technodomiki and CV Romania to form Quest Wireless last year. Quest won a 3.5 GHz bank FWA license at auction for 4.4 million euros, allowing it to provide wireless connections between phones and fixed-line telecoms networks. Infoquest said it expected the transfer of Hellenic Technodomiki’s stake to be completed by the end of November. It did not disclose financial details.It said it was continuing talks with 20-percent shareholder CV Romania on also acquiring its stake in Quest. Greece’s largest IT company by sales, Infoquest successfully bid in July for Greece’s fourth second generation mobile phone license, the cornerstone of its plans to expand into telecoms services. In July, management told shareholders it planned to invest 29.3 million euros to develop a mobile network and would announce a detailed business plan soon. Greece already has three mobile operators: Vodafone subsidiary Panafon, Telecom Italia Group’s Stet Hellas and OTE Telecom’s CosmOTE.
