(Repeats story from Friday)
* FinMin, FNM paper favours Deutsche Telekom as buyer
* EconMin prefers an IPO instead
* The 49 percent stake seen worth around 1 bln euros
BRATISLAVA, March 11 (Reuters) - The Slovak Finance Ministry
wants to sell the government's minority stake in
telecommunications group Slovak Telekom (ST) to Deutsche Telekom
<DTEGnDE>, contradicting previous suggestions that a sale might
be made via a public share offer, a report showed on Friday.
"The sale of the minority stake in ST to majority
shareholder Deutsche Telekom is the most likely and most
effective option," said the report, drafted by the finance
ministry and the National Property Fund (FNM).
"For Deutsche Telekom, it is currently important to own
companies able to generate cash."
Economy Minister Juraj Miskov told Reuters in an interview
last month he saw an initial public share offer (IPO) as the
best option for selling the stake, expecting to raise over 1
billion euros for the state. []
The economy ministry holds a 34 percent stake in the company
and the FNM has 15 percent.
The report is due to be discussed by the cabinet in the
coming weeks.
The euro zone country plans to restart a privatisation
drive, halted by the previous centre-left government, in order
to boost competitiveness and raise funds.
It approved the sale of six regional heating companies in
February.
The Slovak Telekom group, where Deutsche Telekom owns the
controlling 51 percent stake acquired in a privatisation deal in
2000, is Slovakia's largest fixed and mobile operator and offers
data and voice services via its T-Com and T-Mobile brands.
The centre-right government of Iveta Radicova, in power
since July, commissioned the finance ministry last month to
assess the various options.
The paper said that an independent valuation of the stake
would be necessary, putting its own preliminary estimate of the
stake's value at around 940 million euros.
The report said an IPO was the second-best option and
Deutsche Telekom's approval would be needed.
The group's total revenue fell by 4.4 percent to 701.6
million euros ($968.8 million) in the first nine months of 2010
following price cuts in selected services.
Operating free cash-flow for the period dropped by 4.2
percent to 200.3 million euros.
The company said earlier this week it may cut some 800 jobs,
out of a current workforce of 4,658 to cut costs.
($1=.7242 euros)
(Reporting by Martin Santa; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
