Telekom Austria awaits tender for Telekom Srbije

Telekom Austria is interested in Serbia's telecom firm Telekom Srbije, a spokesperson of the Austrian telecommunication company has confirmed to Austria's APA news agency.

However, the scope of this interest is limited because Telekom Austria is already present in the Serbian market through its partnership with the mobile operator VIP mobile, said the unnamed spokesperson.

This representative of Telekom Austria, which is majority owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, reminds that no procedure to sell Telekom Srbije has been started yet.

VIP mobile has a 20% market share in Serbia, and it is active in mobile telephony only, while Telekom Austria has been following for quite a while the same strategy of offering landline telephony services wherever it already provides the services of mobile telephony, like in Bulgaria, Croatia and, since recently, Macedonia.

Therefore, experts believe that Telekom Srbije would perfectly fit in Telekom Austria's business plans.

By the way, Telekom Austria already tried to buy Telekom Srbije in 2011, offering EUR 1.1 billion for a 51-percent stake in the Serbian company, but the Government then asked EUR 1.4 billion for the given stake, APA reports.