Telekom Austria Group has announced the withdrawal of its wireless subsidiary mobilkom austria from the tender for the acquisition of a stake in the Serbian mobile operator Mobi 63.
Based on its thorough evaluation of both, the Serbian mobile communication market and of the business prospects of Mobi 63 and due diligence conducted over an extended period of time, Telekom Austria decided to stop bidding, once the tender price exceeded the amount that the management believed justified.
Boris Nemsic, CEO of the Telekom Austria Group and CEO mobilkom austria said: “As a management team we are fully committed to our shareholders and our primary goal is to create value in the business. Mobi 63 was sold at a price that we felt was not value accretive. As a consequence, we decided to withdraw from the bidding process. However, East and South-East Europe continues to be the focus of our expansion strategy and we expect to see other opportunities in this growth region over the coming years.”
Stefano Colombo, Chief Financial Officer of the Telekom Austria Group added: “Following today’s decision and once the tenders underway in Slovakia and Bosnia Herzegovina are finalized, we will review our cash use policy and explore new possibilities to return additional capital to our shareholders.”