The cost of shares which the Swedish Telia company owns in the Latvian telecoms companies Tet and Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT) might be around EUR 550-600 million, LETA has learned unofficially.
Latvian Economics Minister Viktors Valainis declined to comment, saying that all sums mentioned in the context of the deal are mere speculations.
The government is planning on Tuesday to meet behind closed doors to take a decision on buying out the Telia-owned shares in the two companies. The economics minister is expected to deliver a progress report on the talks with the Swedish company. Valainis refused to comment on whether a decision would be taken today, but LETA knows that the matter will be considered in the information report “On the implementation of the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers meeting.”
As has been reported previously, Latvia’s Cabinet of Ministers voted on December 18, 2024, to authorise the Economics to make an offer to buy Telia’s shares in Tet and LMT.
The sums of the deal are a commercial secret and will only be disclosed if Telia formally accepts the offer from Latvia, Minister Valainis says.
The offer has been prepared taking into account economic considerations, and the deal must be economically viable.
Asked about the future structure of Tet and LMT, Valainis said that the government has a clear sense of what to do if Telia accepts the deal, but “then the government will have to think further on how to structure this transaction to minimise its impact on the national budget.”
The minister added that the scenario was chosen from several possible versions.
Asked whether the government had other scenarios in case Telia says no, Valainis replied that yes, there are such scenarios, but he declined to elaborate on them any further.
Source: BNS
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