Slovenia’s hopes of privatising Telekom Slovenije have been thrown into disarray after just one bidder emerged with a low-ball offer.
The deadline for submitting offers for the government’s 72.75% holding expired on Monday, upon which Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SDH), asset manager handling the sale, revealed that only one binding offer had been made.
According to local media outlet Finance.si, that bidder is U.K. private equity firm Cinven, which offered between €105 and €115 per share, well below Telekom Slovenije’s €128 closing share price on Monday.
Deutsche Telekom was also a prospective bidder, but dropped out of the running. Sources cited by Bloomberg claimed the German incumbent was concerned about the value of the asset, as well as unspecified regulatory issues.
Meanwhile, the Finance.si report claims that SDH will now attempt to negotiate a better offer from Cinven, but the news site suggests opponents of Telekom Slovenije’s privatisation will seize the opportunity to call for the process to be scrapped.
"If the targets are not achieved, it is not realistic to complete such transactions," conceded Metod Dragonja, state secretary at Slovenia’s ministry of finance, in the Finance.si report.
Less than a year ago, Cinven and Deutsche Telekom were two of eight companies understood to be interested in acquiring Telekom Slovenije.
Telekom Slovenije was armarked for privatisation in 2013. Private equity firms Apax, Bain Capital and Providence Equity were thought to have submitted offers in July 2014. Russia’s MTS and Turkcell were also said to be in the running, as were Apollo Global Management, CVC Capital and PPF Group.
