BELGRADE, Serbia (AFX) - Telenor ASA of Norway offered Monday to buy Mobi 63, Serbia's cell phone company, for 1.5 billion euros ($1.92 billion).
Telenor ASA outbid Mobilkom Austria AG and Egypt's Orascom Telecom at an auction organized by the government, which holds 70 percent in Mobi 63, and a group of Austrian investors who control the remaining 30 percent.
The winning bidder gets a 10-year renewable operating license for the Serbian territory.
There is only one other mobile telephony provider in Serbia, state-owned Telekom Serbia, and the government has pledged that, following a successful sale of Mobi 63, it would not open the market for a third operator in the next 2 years.
The starting price for Mobi 63, including its infrastructure and subscriber base, was 800 million euros ($1.01 billion). It covers about half of the country's market of 4 million users.
Of the amount reached at the auction, 320 million euros ($405.25 million) goes exclusively to the state for the license, while the remainder is to be split between the state and the Austrian Holdenhurst Holding proportionately to their respective stakes.
The deal is expected to be signed 'in several days,' said Vladislav Cvetkovic, the government official in charge of the auction.
Telenor ASA has 90 million users operates in 12 countries in Europe and Asia. In Serbia's neighbor, Montenegro, Telenor ASA entirely owns the ProMonte cell phone company.
The sale is expected to end a long-standing controversy surrounding Mobi 63, originally named Mobtel, which was founded in 1994 by the government and Serbian tycoon businessman Bogoljub Karic.
Amid an ownership dispute last year between Karic and the state, the tycoon sold his stake to the Austrian investors, who then reached an agreement with authorities to reform and rename the company as 70 percent state-owned and 30 percent in the hands of the Austrian Holdenhurst Holding.
Karic has since fled the country, dodging an arrest warrant on charges of contract violation, corruption and fraud.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
© 2006 AFX News
