OTE’s Romtelecom plans
OTE Telecom on Saturday left open the possibility of a third telecom operator taking part in a future share capital increase in Romania’s Romtelecom, in which OTE holds a 35-percent stake. OTE’s chief executive Lefteris Antonakopoulos told financial daily Imerisia that either a bank or telecom company may provide Romtelecom with a much-needed capital injection. «We are not ruling out either proposal,» he said. OTE said in June that it reached an agreement with Romania, majority shareholder in fixed-line operator Romtelecom, on its funding plans and that a share capital increase would take place in the Romanian company. Romtelecom plans to launch a restructuring plan allowing the cash-strapped company to pay debts and invest in the future. Its five-year plan includes measures to bring $450 million into the company, of which $200 million would come from bank loans and the rest from a share capital increase. OTE is looking into the option of forming an alliance with another company regarding its Romanian investment, Antonakopoulos said, without giving further details. «I am not in a position to say what the final decision is, I am telling you there are different options,» he said. This would mean a change in Romtelecoms’s current share structure, but OTE wants to have a majority stake in the company in order to have control of its investment, he said. (Reuters)
