Greek press: OTE could sell one of its divisions in Romania, Bulgaria or Albania

Newsroom 17/04/2012 | 12:35

The Greek group OTE could decide to sell one of its divisions in Albania, Bulgaria or Romania in order to obtain the necessary funds for the debt service, writes the Greek daily Naftemporiki.

The decision on how to increase liquidity and reduce operational expenses will be made by the end of the first half of the year, says the publication. OTE has a finance deficit between EUR 500-700 million.

In Romania, OTE has a business of over EUR 1 billion a year, via the companies it runs- Romtelecom, Cosmote, Telemobil (Zapp), taken over by Cosmote and the GSM retailer Germanos. A main shareholder in Romtelecom with a 54.01 percent stake, OTE did not wish to take over the remaining share package owned by the state (45.99 percent) because of the difficult context in Greece. A decision will be made on a possible merger between Romtelecom and Cosmote or listing the company on the stock exchange.