Swisscom Still Wants To Buy Stake In Cesky Telecom

ZURICH -(Dow Jones)- Swisscom AG (SCM) is still interested in buying a stake in Czech telephone company Cesky Telecom AS (BAATEELEC.PR), the chief executive of the Swiss telephone company told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.

"We are still interested in buying that (Cesky); it is one of the acquisition targets that fits in well within our scope," Jens Alder told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a press conference.

The Czech government said Wednesday it will pursue a dual-track sale strategy for Cesky Telecom. Under the plan, the government will first seek a buyer for its 51.1% stake in the company in a direct sale.

The government will prepare a market placement of the shares in case no buyer is found for a direct sale.

Czech Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said the government will seek to complete the direct sale by March 31.

The stake is worth up to 60 billion koruna ($1=CZK23.3).

Last week, Czech officials confirmed that both Swisscom and Denmark's TDC A/S (TDC.KO) had expressed interest in buying Cesky Telecom. The Czech government expects to get a higher price by selling a majority stake to one buyer than by selling its Cesky Telecom shares to a number of investors on capital markets.

But, analysts and government officials also say that a direct sale would probably be a much lengthier process than the market placement.

But Swisscom's Alder moved to alleviate such concerns, saying Swisscom would proceed quickly if it were offered to buy the Cesky stake.

Sobotka said that the government set a firm date for running the direct sale of Cesky Telecom to ensure the process doesn't drag on for too long.

Cesky Telecom Web site: http://www.telecom.cz

Swisscom: http://www.swisscom.com

By Hans Schoemaker, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 43 443 8045 ; hans.schoemaker@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 2nd December 2004