BRATISLAVA, April 28, (WEBNOVINY) — The German company Deutsche Telekom, which is a majority owner of the telecommunication company Slovak Telekom, a.s., voted down the proposal of the Slovak Republic at the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday for a payment of dividends from unappropriated earnings in the total value of EUR 258 million. The Economy Ministry informed that representatives of the German shareholder did not give reasons for their decision not to pay out the dividends. Economy Minister Juraj Miskov considers the situation that occurred to be abuse of shareholder’s dominant position.
“We were unpleasantly surprised and taken aback by the stance of the German shareholder. Slovak Telekom now has enough unappropriated earnings from previous years, which it has not paid out to its shareholders,” stated Miskov. He said that Slovakia needs every euro in its current situation for consolidation of public finances and financial rehabilitation after the ruling of the previous government of Robert Fico. “Today’s vote only confirmed my conviction that that Deutsche Telekom is abusing its position of a majority 51-percent shareholder and the company’s stance only confirmed the fact that Slovak Telekom may be a golden goose but without any ability to lay golden eggs,” added Miskov.
The joint stock company Slovak Telekom is an affiliation of the supranational Deutsche Telekom Group. The ST group comprises the parent company Slovak Telekom and its affiliations PosAm, s.r.o.; Telekom Sec, s.r.o.; Zoznam, s.r.o.; and Zoznam Mobile, s.r.o. Deutsche Telekom controls 51 percent of ST shares. The Economy Ministry holds 34 percent and the FNM 15 percent.
SITA