Telekom Buys Majority Stake in Private Albanian Telco
Slovenian telco Telekom Slovenije signed on Monday a contract on the acquisition of a 75% stake in Albanian Online Service Provider (AOL SP), a Tirana-based private company. The deal gives Telekom access to the developing Albanian telecommunication market, the company said at a press conference in Ljubljana.
"The acquisition is worth EUR 3.97m, while the company and minority shareholders are also planning a EUR 5m capital injection," Telekom CEO Bojan Dremelj told the press. He added that the telco would invest also between 18 and 20 million euros in the Albanian market in the next five years. By acquiring AOL SP, Telekom has fully entered the entire Albanian-speaking region, namely Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia. The company expects the acquisition to contribute to its more effective and successful appearance on the mentioned markets.
The deal is important primarily from the aspect of the development of the relatively underdeveloped Albanian telecommunications market. Convinced the market will experience a fast growth, Telekom expects a successful transfer of know-how, technologies and services.
Albania, with a population of 3.5 million, has only 285,000 fixed-line telephone connections or nine phone connections per 100 citizens, which leaves a lot of room for growth. "It is a very attractive market with high economic growth and a low inflation rate," said Dremelj.
According to Dremelj, AOL SP's competitive advantage on the Albanian market is its subscriber base, optical and wireless network, cable infrastructure and the acquired licences and permits. "We believe to be the best alternative operator on the Albanian telecommunications market," AOL SP chairman Robert Mane said after the deal was signed. Mane and AOL SP executive director Ylli Panariti will retain a 12.5% stake each.
Regarding the Kosovo market, where Telekom, its wireless arm Mobitel and the Kosovo Internet service provider (ISP) Ipko Net acquired a second wireless operator licence worth EUR 75m in February 2007, Dremelj announced that first services would be provided as early as this year.
Dremelj also touched on other issues, saying that the company was facing a decline in the use of fixed-line telephony, which it was successfully compensating for with revenues from broadband and inter-operator services on the home and foreign markets. Dremelj also said the company had been reducing the number of employees for years, yet there was no need for massive lay-offs. The number of employees to be cut this year will reach 113, but 45 young experts will be employed anew.
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