BRATISLAVA, April 29, (WEBNOVINY) — The German group Deutsche Telekom, which is the majority shareholder in Slovak Telekom, is prepared to negotiate with the Ministry of Economy on dividends payment from Slovak Telekom’s profit. As Sylvia Braunle of corporate communications of Deutsche Telekom told SITA news agency, the company received from the Ministry of Economy a request to for a meeting. It concerns Deutsche Telekom ‚s decision on Thursday at the Annual General Meeting of Slovak Telekom where it rejected the proposal of representatives of the Slovak Republic for the payment of dividends of EUR 258 million.
According to Braunle, Deutsche Telekom has made an appropriate offer to government representatives in Slovak Telekom before the AGM. „This offer is still valid and Deutsche Telekom is willing to continue talks with the Slovak government,“ stated Braunle. However, she added she does not wish to provide more detailed comments to internal deliberations of the company shareholders.
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.
In response to the situation, Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said he sees no reason why Deutsche Telekom should object to the payment of dividends. As he said on Thursday, he assumes that Slovak government representatives would still hold talks with the German group. He said this case is also one reason why the government should consider selling its minority stake in Slovak Telekom. Miklos is not concerned that a potential non-payment of dividends would endanger next year’s state budget.
The joint stock company Slovak Telekom is an affiliation of the supranational Deutsche Telekom Group. The Slovak Telekom 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 Slovak Telekom shares. The Economy Ministry holds 34 percent and the FNM 15 percent.
SITA