Slovenia receives one binding bid for Telekom

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By Marja Novak

LJUBLJANA, April 13 (Reuters) - Slovenia received one binding bid for a 72.75 percent stake in its largest telecoms operator Telekom Slovenia, state investment fund SDH said on Monday.

SDH, which is coordinating the sale, gave no details on the bidder or the size of the bid.

Sources close to the process told Reuters on Monday that the bidder was investment fund Cinven but did not reveal the price bid.

Cinven declined to comment and Deutsche Telekom (Xetra: 555750 - news) , which had been touted as a potential bidder, did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment.

On Friday sources told Reuters that bids were expected at about 110 euros per share, which would value the company at 719 million euros ($761 million).

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) of Telekom Slovenia closed 0.85 percent lower on Monday at 128 euros while the blue-chip SBI index lost 0.11 percent.

Telekom Slovenia is the largest of the companies slated for privatisation in 2013, a few months before Slovenia narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks. So far three of the companies have been sold.

Metod Dragonja, state secretary at the finance ministry, has said that the government would not sell Telekom Slovenia if bids fail to meet expectations, without indicating its desired price.

Slovenia cancelled a proposed sale of the company in 2008, saying the bids were too low. ($1 = 0.9451 euros) (Editing by David Goodman)