Austrian telecommunications company Telekom Austria Group will take over 24.9% of the shares in Telecom Liechtenstein, the national telco of the Principality of Liechtenstein.
With 75.1%, the majority stake will remain in the hands of the Principality. The agreement is a non-cash transaction: In return for its stake, Telekom Austria will contribute its Liechtenstein-based mobile network subsidiary Mobilkom Liechtenstein to the deal which will be merged with Telecom Liechtenstein.
The telco will then be able to offer bundled products of fixed-line telephony, mobile services, internet and TV as a quadruple play provider. Mathias Maierhofer, managing director of Mobilkom Liechtenstein, will become the new CEO of Telecom Liechtenstein.
“The merger of these two companies marks a further step forward in the implementation of our convergence strategy,” said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Telekom Austria Group. “Telecom Liechtenstein is an ideal partner for us and together we will be able to offer Liechtenstein’s residential customers all products from one single source, while at the same time supporting the successful Lichtenstein-based corporations on a global level.”
The merger which resembles a partial privatisation of Telecom Liechtenstein is expected to be closed in the next four to six weeks. The regulators still need to approve the deal. The merged company which serves around 49,000 customers will have a workforce of 91 employees and achieve annual revenues of around 50CHF million (€41 million).
