Slovenia Telekom shares drop on uncertainty over sale

By Marja Novak

LJUBLJANA, April 14 (Reuters) - Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Slovenia's largest telecoms operator, Telekom Slovenia, dropped almost 7 percent on Tuesday on speculation the sale of the government's majority stake may not go ahead.

On Monday, Slovenia's state investment fund SDH, which is coordinating the sale, said it had received only one binding bid for the firm.

By 1100 GMT on Tuesday, Telekom shares were down 6.9 percent at 119.2 euros, while the blue-chip SBI index stood 0.72 percent firmer.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that investment fund Cinven offered around 110 euros per Telekom share, valuing the whole company at about 719 million euros.

Analysts believe the government, which controls 72.75 percent of Telekom, had expected to achieve a valuation of around one billion euros.

Cinven and SDH have declined to comment.

"The government has indicated that it will not sell at any price so there is a chance that it will not go through with the sale unless the offer is improved, if it is indeed below 120 euros per share as reported by the media," said Saso Stanovnik, chief economist of investment firm Alta Invest.

Slovenia tried to sell Telekom in 2008 but cancelled the process in the last stage, saying the bids were too low.

Telekom is the largest of 15 firms earmarked for privatisation in 2013. So far only three have been sold.

Last week, parliament ousted defence minister Janko Veber because he had ordered the army secret service to analyse the security consequences of the sale of Telekom. (Reporting by Marja Novak; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and Mark Potter)