BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/10/2007

Telekom Austria may pay $1.9b for MDC stake

VIENNA (Bloomberg) -- Telekom Austria AG, the country's largest phone company, may pay up to 1.9 billion dollars for Mobile Digital Communications, a wireless phone company in Belarus.

The company may pay 1.8 billion dollars to 1.9 billion dollars for full control of MDC, Telekom Austria Chief Financial Officer Hans Tschuden told reporters at a conference in Vienna. He didn't provide further details.

The Vienna-based company said it agreed to buy a 70 percent stake in SB Holding, the investment company that controls Minsk-based MDC, for 730 million euros (1.04 billion dollars), including debt.

Telekom Austria has an option to buy the remaining stake by the end of 2010 for 320 million euros plus a performance-related bonus, the company said.

"We have no plans for a capital increase" to finance the deal, Tschuden said. "We have enough cash flow."

The MDC purchase is the biggest by Telekom Austria since Boris Nemsic became chief executive officer last year and gives it 2.7 million new customers.

Telekom Austria plans to consolidate MDC's performance in its fourth quarter earnings.

Source:

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=155495