Calik Group who is operating in textile, construction, finance, marketing and foreign trade sectors, was awarded the privatization of Albania Telecom solely.
Calik Telecom had bid for Turkish Telecom and as well as Kirghiz Telecom and is known with its investments in the Central Asia.
According to the news published in Radikal newspaper, Calik Telecom acquired 76% of ALB (Albania) Telecom’s shares in return for 120 million Euro. The rest of the shares belong to Albanian Government. It is reported that 5% of this will be offered to the employees and the rest to the public after a while.
It is reported that a GSM company that is within the corporate body of Albania Telecom had been transferred to Calik Holding within the framework of this agreement. There are two separate GSM companies in Albania, operated by Vodafone and AMC.
15 companies had entered the tender for the privatization of Albania Telecom and it is said that the company has approximately 300,000 subscribers and Albania has a total population of 3 million people.
Calik Group officials say that they had not entered the tender for Albania together, because of “the privatization process of Turkish Telecom”; the two companies had entered the tender for Kirghiz tender together before. However, they say that there is a consultancy agreement between Calik Group and Turkish Telecom.
It is noted that the turnover of Calik Group for the year 2004 was $1 billion.
The news was welcomed in the telecom community.
Kaynak : 