The Slovenian National Holding Company (SDH) has rejected the extra conditions imposed by Cinven, in addition to the binding offer submitted on May 20, for it to buy a majority (75%) stake in Telekom Slovenije.
In a statement, the SDH says that these conditions “represented too great a risk and could lead to an unjustified reduction in the purchase price”.
However, it also added that it was “still ready to complete the transaction under the conditions approved by (its) supervisory board on June 10.
According to Dnevnik, the additional conditions imposed by Cinven were that it retained part of the purchase price until the Macedonian authorities approved the sale of Telekom Slovenije’s Macedonian asset One to Telekom Austria.
The conditions also related to Telekom Slovenije’s acquisition of Debitel, Slovenia’s fourth largest mobile operator, announced earlier this year.
Despite the SDH still being willing to complete the transaction without the additional conditions demanded by Cinven and Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar finally issuing a statement in favour of the deal after his government had refused to take responsibility for the sale, Debitel believes the privatisation is now probably dead in the water and the telco will remain majority state owned.
