Telenor to leave Hungary?

News of Telenor selling its Eastern and Central European stakes were frequent recently. Hungary might be concerned in this, but the Norwegian company has not commented on these news until now. Portfolio.hu reports that an official statement has been released which states that Telenor received an offer for its stakes in Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary.

According to a statement published on Telenor’s official website, a voluntary and obligation-free offer has been made for the company’s Eastern and Central European base, which includes Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro. Bearing in mind the shareholder’s value, Telenor will examine the offer in the first quarter of the year and then decide whether to accept it or not. The examination process will not affect the operation of Telenor, nor the clients or the employees.

Who could be the buyer?

According to specialist news provider Mergermarket, Telenor had talks with an American investing base for selling the stakes as mentioned earlier for 2 billion euros. Bulgarian business news outlet Capital found out that the prospective buyer was chosen already in December. Specialists believe that the buyer could be the global investor KKR, which has several stakes in the region, among many others a Serbian satellite TV provider. However, according to other sources, the buyer is not yet active in the area. Thus it is not yet sure that KKR will be the winner.

Based on the news so far, we are talking about an investor who has no stakes in the region yet.