Romania on Thursday revived plans to float its stake in fixed-line operator Romtelecom and said the country's biggest share offering could go ahead next year. Telecommunication Minister Iuliu Winkler told Reuters market conditions would be favourable for the sale of the government's 46 percent stake in the middle or third quarter of 2008.
He would not estimate the value of the stake in Romtelecom, which is majority owned by Greece's OTE, but a predecessor forecast it could fetch over 1 billion euros ($1.44 billion). The float was scheduled for 2006 but was delayed after recent privatisations came under the spotlight on suspicion of commercial espionage.
Analysts believe the listing will help boost liquidity on the local stock exchange which has a capitalisation of just under 28 billion euros. "I will not make any financial estimation. The success of Romtelecom's commercial operations ... a joint offer (of products) by Romtelecom and Cosmote can produce results which I wouldn't want now to quantify," Winkler said in an interview.
Romtelecom and mobile phone operator Cosmote have said they plan to cooperate in selling their products, signalling the start of the convergence of their operations.