Yesterday, the Credit Suisse – the Bank selected by the Italians tosettle the private tender- defined the short list of the names still inthe run as potential buyers of Telecom Italy’s stake in TelecomArgentina.
The selected three ones were a consortium formed by Eduardo Eurnekian and Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Conte ,from Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 and Matías Garfunkel Madanes joinedthem, then IRSA owned by Eduardo Elsztain and the ex-logisticsbusinessman Alfredo Román. In the three cases, the tender is for a 50 %of Sofora, Telecom Argentina Parenting Company through Nortel, whichthe Italians have the Werthein group as a partner in.
The Credit Suisse Bank verified that bidders met the requirements ofhaving the money bid set aside and readily available. Some marketsources have guaranteed that from now on a further different analysiswill be considered to define the successful buyer.
Following the latest unnamed sources, Eurnekian, Gutiérrezand Garfunkel would offer around 580 million dollars and would haveWerthein’s endorsement. On their part, Elsztain’s offer would amount to630 million dollars whilst Roman group would be in the middle of themboth.
Pegasus, Clarín, Geniéve fund and Condor Inversiones were left outof this price competition amongst others; they all have been delivereda letter with the bad news for not having met the requirementsestablished for this transaction.
The three final bidders have been already selected and in Europethere is some talk about a possible merger of Telecom Italy andTelefónica; if realized, this will push the local sale.
