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Weekly Lists
February 1, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:TMT
Tele2 valued at $3.6bn ahead of mooted acquisition by Rostelecom
Four companies interested in Kosovo Telecom privatisation
Russia’s fixed line telecoms company Rostelecom is in talks to buy mobile operator T2 RTC Holdings, which operates under the Tele2 brand, Vedomosti reported on January 25. Tele2 is the most recent entrant to the telecoms business and has been valued at RUB240bn ($3.6bn) ahead of the mooted acquisition.
The state-owned Rostelecom has already agreed on the terms with Tele2 shareholders, a source close to the deal told Vedomosti.
T2 RTK Holding is valued at RUB240bn, a friend of the members of the board of directors of Tele2 told Vedomosti, however, Rostelecom is only intending to buy a controlling packet of shares and not 100%, according to the Russian paper’s sources.
Four companies are interested in the operations of Kosovo’s troubled telecommunication firm Kosovo Telecom, the Kosovan telecoms ministry said on January 28. The names of the interested companies are A1 Telekom Austria, Orange, Rockaway Capital of PFF Group and Artillery One.
Kosovo Telecom is set to be privatised under the plans recently announced by the Kosovan government. Once the most profitable company in the country, Kosovo Telecom came close to bankruptcy with accumulated debts of €60mn.
Since the start of the mandate of Minister Valdrin Lluka, four companies have expressed their interest to learn more “about business doing of Telekom of Kosova, strictly on the number of clients, operational and financial situation, its economic property rights and intellectual property as well,” the ministry of economic development told bne IntelliNews.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has hit out at the blocking of social media apps by Iran’s judiciary, saying such resistance to new technologies is “outdated”, local media outlets have reported.
Rouhani reportedly suggested that the hardliner moves that block citizens’ enjoyment of social media and the internet were pointless as the approach turns applications “into the forbidden fruit, which people crave more”.
"Resisting new technologies and modern developments is an out- dated approach," Rouhani stated on public broadcaster Islamic Re- public of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Iran has blocked nearly all social media in the country.
Iran’s Rouhani slams “outdated” social media jamming creating “forbidden fruit”