Colaninno Begins Serbian Withdrawal 6 July 2001 10:35 By Luca Fornovo The Karic brothers, the Kosovar family which became very wealthy during the years of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic's presidency, have agreed to sell Mobtel together with Mr. Roberto Colaninno, number one of Telecom Italia. At the moment Mobtel is 51% owned by the BK Group, the multinational company owned by the Karic brothers that operates in the fields of publishing, telecommunications and construction and has a consolidated turnover of more than 800 million dollars. The remaining shares, (49%), are owned by Telecom Srbjia, the 51% state owned telephone company in which Telecom Italia has 29% and Ote, former monopolist of Greece, 20%. The potential buyers of Mobtel are: British Vodafone and the former German monopolist, Deutsche Telekom, two companies interested in strengthening their position in the Balkans. The company headed by Ron Sommer is, in fact, already in Budapest with the controlled company, Matav, in Bratislava with Slovenske Telekominikacie and in Zagreb (Croatia) with Hrvatske Telekominikacije. Vodafone, on the other hand, has a subsidiary in Greece (Panafon) and in Romania, (Connex GSM). In order to favor Deutsche Telekom or Vodafone, two companies with which business is already underway, BK Group and Telecom Srbjia are both ready to reduce their shareholding to 25 to 30%. A new shareholder will enable Mobtel to introduce new capital which, indeed, is necessary for the strengthening of its Gsm network infrastructure and to offer better service to its 900 thousand subscribers. Mobtel was founded in 1994 and it has 422 employees. In 2000 revenue reached 425 million Euros, (5.1 billion dinars), and net profits 62 million Euros of, (749 million dinars). Even though it was established on the basis of different reasons, the agreement between the BK Group and Roberto Colaninno has a single logic: the need of liquidity. The Mobtel deal could earn the wealthy Karic brothers hundreds of millions of dollars, quite useful for new business ventures. For Telecom Italia it could, on the other hand, be an excellent possibility to initiate a strategic withdrawal from Serbia. First of all a way to get out of the Telecom Srbjia scandal: the presumed bribes paid during the privatization of 49% of the shareholding of the Serbian telephone company in 1997. Secondly to avoid the cash-thirsty finances of Telekom Srbjia. Since Telecom Italia and Ote have entered the Serbian company, investments have reached 412 million Marks in 1999 and 443 million Marks in 2000. What will really count for the sale of Mobtel, however, will be the approval of the new law by Serbian institutions. The legislation will enable the transfer of the majority stakes of a strategic industry to a foreign investor. Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
