OTE denies collusion on license
The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) reacted sharply yesterday to an article published on Thursday in the daily Kathimerini, which alleged that OTE and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) had arranged the acquisition of a license for GSM mobile telephone services in Bulgaria in favor of the former. According to the article, OTE and TIM in effect agreed to the former paying a bribe of 3.5 billion drachmas to the latter. The article says the deal was sealed between OTE Chairman and Managing Director Nikos Manassis and Roberto Rovera, then managing director of Telecom Italia subsidiary Stet Hellas, on December 10, 2000, in Athens. A week after the two executives met, OTE was declared the winner in the bid for the GSM license by the Bulgarian government. It had offered $135 million, while TIM’s offer had been limited to $130 million. OTE subsidiary CosmoBulgaria started offering mobile telephony services in September 2001. OTE and TIM apparently agreed that the 3.5-billion-drachma sum would be paid in two installments: 2 billion by January 31, 2001 and 1.5 billion by July 31, 2001. On February 21, 2001, OTE Financial Director Dimitris Kouvatsos sent a fax to Elis Bontempelli, head of international affairs at TIM. «Dear Mr Bontempelli, Please find attached a description of the services that may be invoiced to OTE for an amount up to 2 billion drs,» began Kouvatsos, and proceeded to detail six possible services for which TIM or another Telecom Italia group company could bill OTE. In reply to the allegations, OTE released the following statement yesterday: «OTE did not sign any ‘secret’ agreement with a third party in order to obtain the mobile telephony license in Bulgaria two years ago. «The article in newspaper Kathimerini links unconnected issues. «The ‘evidence’ selectively presented in the article has nothing to do with the case of the mobile telephony license in Bulgaria. Specifically, the article’s references to OTE agreements with Telecom Italia (including a fax sent by our financial department, etc.) are considerably prior to the award of the mobile telephony license by Bulgaria and (the agreements) had been the subject of debate and decisions by OTE’s board of directors. At present, these agreements are in abeyance and their financial aspects have not yet been settled. «OTE has had, and still has, commercial relations with Telecom Italia, abroad and in Greece, due to the presence of Stet Hellas. Indeed, with the last-mentioned company, as with the other mobile telephony company, OTE is in the process of settling the matter of interconnection charges, without OTE having disbursed any amount of money yet. «The effort made by the newspaper to twist reality and link entirely legal past agreements to the bidding process for the mobile telephony license in Bulgaria, a process to which these past agreements were wholly unconnected, and the attempt to raise doubts over the tender’s legality and transparency, undermines the reputation of the OTE group and the interests of its shareholders. «Therefore, regarding the present article – and any that might follow in line with the newspaper’s usual practice – OTE reserves the right to protect its interests and those of its shareholders.»
