Deutsche Telekom CEO tight-lipped on Slovak Telekom speculation

Timotheus Höttges

Deutsche Telekom’s CEO has refused to be drawn on reports that it has placed an offer for the 49% stake it does not already own in Slovakia’s Slovak Telekom.

Speaking on Deutsche Telekom’s earnings call yesterday, company CEO Timotheus Höttges said that while Slovak Telekom is “part of the very core of our strategy,” it would be “premature to speculate about any possible transaction or not.”

“We’ve always said that we’re interested in acquiring minority stakes based on favourable terms. The Slovak Government has withdrawn its plans to do an IPO. Whether or not, this will lead to a transaction we don’t know, at this point in time,” said Höttges.

The comments follow a report earlier this week, claiming that a full takeover offer by Deutsche Telekom had led the Slovakian government to recently cancel its proposed IPO of Slovak Telekom.

In April, Slovak Telekom set its initial public offering price range at €17.7 to €23.6 per-share, valuing the company at between €1.5 billion and €2.0 billion.

The news comes as Slovak Telekom reported a 2.1% year-on-year drop in revenues to €187 million and a 6.4% decline in adjusted EBITDA to €73 million.

“We have posted a slight decline on the group revenues but two areas remain strong in fixed business: we have pushed broadband accesses lines and digital TV subscribers to higher levels, with year-on-year growth of around 7%. We hope to achieve good results in mobile business as well, having launched our new fixed-mobile convergent Magenta 1 offer at the beginning of March,” said Miroslav Majoroš, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Slovak Telekom.