The Polish entrepreneur Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, whose interests include the country’s leading DTH platform Cyfrowy Polsat, has secured a major foothold in the telecom sector by acquiring 100% of the telco Polkomtel for over PLN18 billion (€4.5 billion).
In doing so, he is understood to have beaten off competition from Apax, TeliaSonera and Telenor.
Quoted in Wirtualne Media, Solorz-Zak said that the deal will help speed up the rollout of LTE technology, in which he hopes Poland will become a world leader.
The acquisition of Polkomtel, which operates the mobile network Plus, now has to receive the approval of the competition authority UOKiK.
Polkomtel has until now been backed by five companies including the UK’s Vodafone.