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Kurt Sansone
The Privatisation Unit has set up an evaluation and adjudication committee under the chairmanship of Emanuel Ellul to analyse the binding offers government has received for the sale of its 60 per cent stake in Maltacom.
The announcement was made official by Maltacom through a company announcement issued on the Stock Exchange on Friday.
Earlier in the week sister newspaper Business Today reported that the sale of government’s 60 per shareholding in Maltacom attracted particular interest from the Middle East, with two of the three companies that submitted their bids the week before hailing from Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
When bidding for the 60 per cent stake came to a close on Wednesday 18, only three of the five initial interested bidders are reported to have submitted their offer. The three companies are OgerTelecom, Dubai Telecom and Cable & Wireless.
Telecom Slovenia and Icelandic equity investment company, Novator decided not to submit their bids despite having expressed an interest.
Maltacom’s privatisation has not attracted large European companies previously touted as possible strategic partners for the Maltese telecoms company. But Telecom Italia may still be involved in the bid submitted by Saudi Arabia’s OgerTelecom, which belongs to the family of the assassinated Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri.
Government would not confirm the number of bidders, saying that proceedings were currently at a “delicate stage.”
In a very cautious tone, a spokesperson for the investments ministry said information on the Maltacom privatisation will be published later on.
“At this delicate stage of the proceedings, it is advantageous for the success of the process that information on the Maltacom privatisation is published at a later stage at the appropriate time. The Ministry will be publishing a statement over the coming days,” the ministry spokesperson told Business Today earlier in the week.
Government will be evaluating the bids submitted and shortly decide on which company or companies it will start negotiations with. The whole process can be expected to take up to two months.
Industry observers believe that the sale can rake in more than the Lm100 million often mentioned in government circles. They point out that Maltacom is a cash-rich company with a healthy balance sheet and is ideally placed to be a quadruple-play operator.
Privatisation discussions are expected to pass through a rough patch when government and the potential buyer discuss property-related issues. The biggest problem concerns the ducts through which Maltacom’s cables pass through. Even though the cable network is Maltacom’s property, the ducts on public land may not belong to the company.
Observers point out that this is a common problem in privatisation talks involving companies such as Maltacom and one possible way out would be for government to lease back the ducts to the company for a long period.
The only European company to submit a bid, Cable & Wireless (C&W), is the UK’s second largest telecoms company after British Telecom. It provides fixed, mobile voice, data, IP and broadband services and apart from the UK, it operates in the Caribbean, Panama, Macau and Monaco.
In October last year C&W sold its stake in Singapore’s MobileOne Ltd but at the same time acquired the UK’s number three fixed line operator, Energis.
In December C&W voluntarily de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange.
OgerTelecom is a branch of Saudi Oger Ltd, a major Saudi Arabian company headquartered in Riyadh belonging to the billionaire Rafic Hariri family. Rafic Hariri is the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated in February 2005 by a car bomb and whose murder is subject to a UN probe over alleged Syrian involvement.
OgerTelecom is run by Rafic Hariri’s son and operates telecommunication services in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Portugal, Romania, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
It is also active in broadcasting and cable television.
In November last year, OgerTelecom, as part of a joint venture with Telecom Italia, purchased 55 per cent of the shares of Turk Telecom from the Turkish government.
Telecom Italia already had a stake in the Turkish telecom company’s mobile phone subsidiary.
The involvement of Telecom Italia in the Turkish sale has led industry observers to speculate that the Italians may also be involved at a technical level in OgerTelecom’s bid for Maltacom.
ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt
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