Elliott Advisors offers to buy Elektrim's ET shares

A consortium of companies led by Elliott Advisors, a U.S., firm that manages distressed debt funds, announced that it is ready to buy Elektrim's 49% block of shares in Elektrim Telekomunikacja (ET). ET in turn owns 48% of shares in Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, the Era GSM mobile phone operator. Elektrim is taking the offer, worth euro 350 million seriously, "This is an important sum which could allow us to pay off most of our debt," said Elektrim Chief Executive Maciej Radziwill. The consortium's proposal is euro 100 million lower than offered by the Elliott and Centaurus Alpha funds back in April. According to Elliott, the value of telecommunication assets have fallen. Over the last few months BRE Bank, Elektrim's largest single shareholder and co-author of a proposed debt restructuring deal, unsuccessfully tried to buy the stake in ET. Nevertheless the new offer has dampened analysts' belief that Elektrim was about to declare itself bankrupt, as its shares jumped by 27.2% on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on the news. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B8; Reuters) M.T.