The Czech Republic’s PPF Group is looking into the possibility of selling the Central and East European assets it acquired from Telenor two years ago.
Quoting anonymous sources cited by Mergermarket, a specialised merger and acquisition information platform, Capital reports that PPF Group would sell the assets, located in Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary, to save costs on the development of 5G networks in several markets.
It adds that Petr Kellner, the billionaire owner of PPF Group, has informally mentioned a sale and that Providence Equity have shown an interest in Telenor Bulgaria.
However, a spokesman for PPF Group has denied it has plans to sell the four Telenor operations.
PPF Group acquired the operations for €2.8 billion, with Capital estimating the amount paid for Telenor Bulgaria being around €800 million.
Since then it has sold 25% of the Hungarian operation to Antenna Hungária and last month created a new network structure named CETIN in Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia.