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Weekly Lists
June 2, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
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Russian mobile major VEON postpones selling cellular towers
Russian mobile major VEON (former VimpelCom, Beeline brand) will not sell its cellular tower assets in the short-term, Vedomosti daily reported on May 29, citing the manager of the company Shell Yonsen.
“We are taking a rational decision,” VEON executive said, adding that no “acceptable proposals for the assets were received”.
“We will not sell off the assets simply because of the trend,” Yon- sen said, referring to other mobile majors in Russia extracting the tower assets.
In January, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources that VimpelCom is ready to sell 12,000 towers for $800mn. However, Vedomosti sources claim that the deal was put on hold as the buyer Russian Towers did not come up with an acceptable offer.
A new attempt at the privatisation of Serbia’s state-owned telecoms giant Telekom Srbija is currently not being discussed, the com- pany’s general director Predrag Culibrk told public broadcaster Radio-televizija Srbije on May 29.
The Serbian government decided in July 2015 to privatise its 58.11% stake in Telekom Srbija, aiming to accelerate its development, in- crease competitiveness and avoid a state-led restructuring. How- ever, in December officials decided not to sell the stake because the best price offered - by an unnamed US investment fund - was unsatisfactory. The next attempt is planned in 2019-2020.
Albania's competition authority has launched a preliminary investi- gation against three mobile operators for changing their tariffs for pre-paid mobile phone customers. According to the law, the com- panies are suspected of abusing their dominant position, but the investigation hasn't named them.
Albania has four mobile operators: Vodafone Albania, Telekom Albania, Albtelecom Mobile and the smallest Plus Communication. Pre-paid customers make up around 90% of all mobile users in the market.
Privatisation of Telekom Srbija not under discussion, says company’s director
Albania’s competition authority probes three mobile operators