Opposition says Telekom sale turned "desperate"

Woaaa, I had to double check if this article was about Kosovo or Serbia. This is the exact same situation happening in Kosovo. Government in Kosovo seems to be in a hurry to privatize PTK and the opposition is saying the same thing word for word. We are not that different after all :). There may be some truth to what the opposition in both Serbia and Kosovo are saying. In both cases the governments seem to be in an exceptional hurry to privatize these two companies. No doubt they want to be in charge when this happens as some dough may come their way. But oppositions in both cases are opposing privatization for the same reason: they want to be in charge when the goodies are handed out.

I happen to think privatizing makes a lot of sense if done properly. I don't know the situation in Serbia that well, but in Kosovo PTK pays out salaries of 500-1000 euros for non executive jobs when there are people out there willing to work for 200-300 euros. That reeks of patronage and corruption.
Privatize it...properly.In US, for example, telecom companies use annual sales X 2 ( see Tmobile & ATT deal)to derive the value. But I think both Kosovo and Serbia should ask for a multiplier of 3 (annual sales x 3) given the dominant position of their respective companies. Using this formula, the telecom company in Kosovo is worth about 300M Euros and the Serbian one is 3.3B euros. These figures are derived from 09 numbers. Not sure how much things have changed since then. Debt load has also to be considered. Based on this, Serbia should actually ask for 1.6B euros for a 49% stake.

"The fact that the government is selling the most profitable state company as if in a flea market just because it needs funds to finance the election campaign is, to put it mildly, very sad,” he noted.
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I couldn't agree more. This government is a complete failure. Since coming to power it has more than doubled our debt and now intends to sell our most profitable company while having nothing to show for it. I am certainly glad I didn't vote for their lies.

Yes probably the timing of this sale is wrong ...so the result of this auction has been ridicule with an offer of almost 50% less than the expectations but if you need money you must take what there is on the plate..

Yes probably the timing of this sale is wrong ...so the result of this auction has been ridicule with an offer of almost 50% less than the expectations but if you need money you must take what there is on the plate..

"The fact that the government is selling the most profitable state company as if in a flea market just because it needs funds to finance the election campaign is, to put it mildly, very sad,” he noted.
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I couldn't agree more. This government is a complete failure. Since coming to power it has more than doubled our debt and now intends to sell our most profitable company while having nothing to show for it. I am certainly glad I didn't vote for their lies.

Woaaa, I had to double check if this article was about Kosovo or Serbia. This is the exact same situation happening in Kosovo. Government in Kosovo seems to be in a hurry to privatize PTK and the opposition is saying the same thing word for word. We are not that different after all :). There may be some truth to what the opposition in both Serbia and Kosovo are saying. In both cases the governments seem to be in an exceptional hurry to privatize these two companies. No doubt they want to be in charge when this happens as some dough may come their way. But oppositions in both cases are opposing privatization for the same reason: they want to be in charge when the goodies are handed out.

I happen to think privatizing makes a lot of sense if done properly. I don't know the situation in Serbia that well, but in Kosovo PTK pays out salaries of 500-1000 euros for non executive jobs when there are people out there willing to work for 200-300 euros. That reeks of patronage and corruption.
Privatize it...properly.In US, for example, telecom companies use annual sales X 2 ( see Tmobile & ATT deal)to derive the value. But I think both Kosovo and Serbia should ask for a multiplier of 3 (annual sales x 3) given the dominant position of their respective companies. Using this formula, the telecom company in Kosovo is worth about 300M Euros and the Serbian one is 3.3B euros. These figures are derived from 09 numbers. Not sure how much things have changed since then. Debt load has also to be considered. Based on this, Serbia should actually ask for 1.6B euros for a 49% stake.