The Serbian government has rejected a last-minute bid of €1.1 billion from Telekom Austria for a 51% stake in the incumbent telco Telekom Srbija.
Novosti reports that under the terms of Telekom Austria’s improved bid – it had previously been the only company to lodge a bid, offering €950 million in cash plus €450 million in investment – the Austrian company said it would pay €800 million in cash plus additional payments over the next nine years, bringing the total to €1.1 billion.
However, this still fell considerably short of the minimum asking price of €1.4 billion demanded by the Serbian state and Greece’s OTE, the other shareholder in Telekom Srbija.