Greece: OTE to buy Nova pay-TV
June 25, 2014
Greek telco OTE has confirmed it is in preliminary talks with the main shareholder of its rival Forthnet to buy its subscription television operations.
“There have been preliminary contacts between OTE and Forthnet’s major shareholder Forgendo Ltd., regarding the Nova pay-TV operations,” OTE said in a bourse filing.
Forthnet, an Internet, telecommunications and pay-TV provider, has a market capitalisation of €144 million on the Athens bourse. Its biggest shareholder Forgendo, which is controlled by Emirates International Telecommunications, holds a 44 per cent stake in the company.
Vodafone, OTE’s biggest domestic rival, holds a 6.5 per cent stake in Forthnet and earlier this month acquired an option to increase it to 19.75 per cent.
OTE is controlled by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom.