BRATISLAVA, September 26, (WEBNOVINY) — According to the government’s privatization agency the National Property Fund, the current situation with Slovak Telekom dividends which the majority owner Deutsche Telekom refuses to pay only confirms that the decision to sell the minority share held by the state is right. “This situation only confirms that our initiative to convince the government that there is no reason to remain a shareholder in the company — but that it is preferable for the state to sell its minority share — was right,” informed head of the National Property Fund chairwoman’s office head Miroslav Homola.
At last Friday’s extraordinary general meeting of Slovak Telekom, majority shareholder Deutsche Telekom rejected a request of the minority shareholder, the Slovak Republic, already for the third time to pay the full amount of dividends worth 258 million euros. “The FNM will take all measures which the shareholder can take,“ said Homola. As Slovak Telekom’s majority shareholder, Deutsche Telekom refused paying the dividends on April 28, 2011. The National Property Fund therefore used its right as a shareholder and demanded the company’s management to call an extraordinary general assembly session which took place on July 8. The EGM approved paying 130 million euros in dividends. Another extraordinary general meeting took place this Friday without bringing any results as Deutsche Telekom still refuses paying full amount of dividends.
Homola also said that the fund plans disclosing the schedule of privatizing the state-owned shares in Slovak Telekom. In March 2011, Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said that he would like to have it privatized within a year and a half. The FNM also informed that the privatization scenario will be the same as the Cabinet already adopted. The Cabinet approved selling the 49-percent of state-held shares to the majority shareholder as the most probable and most efficient way in March. Yet, in June the National Property Fund Executive Board Chairwoman Anna Bubenikova informed that the fund will recommend the Cabinet to sell their shares on the capital market. “We still insist that we will recommend selling the 15-percent package from our portfolio through capital market,” said Bubenikova.
According to FNM’s analysis, the market value of state-held Slovak Telekom shares should be approximately the same as the company’s consolidated revenues which reached 934.3 million euros in 2010. Deutsche Telekom owns 51 percent of Slovak Telekom shares, the Ministry of Economy owns 34 and the National Property Fund 15 percent of shares
SITA