Tel-Energo surges ahead on Telnet and fibre optic deals

Telecom operator Tel-Energo is one step from completing the acquisition of a 74% stake in Telbank from the National Bank of Poland (NBP) in a transaction financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The takeover, estimated at zł. 300 million, has won the approval of Consumer and Competition Protection Office (UOKiK) after being held up since December 2002. Telbank is a specialized data transmission firm set up by the NBP. In related news Tel-Energo is also going to clench a deal for the purchase of the ownership rights of a 60% share in a national fiber optics network of its parent company Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne. The decision contradicts the company's earlier claims, as in April a member of Tel-Energo's board of directors Krzysztof Homenda said, for fiscal and technical reasons, the network would not be physically transferred to the company. (Parkiet, p. 1) J.K.