CAIRO: Rumors have been spread of a possible hostile takeover of Telekom Austria by the Egyptian Telecom company Orascom. The takeover is said to be managed from within Austria by a rich Austrian investor name Ronny Pecik. According to the Austrian daily newspaper Wirtschaftsblatt, Telekom Austria's senior management is concerned about a sudden and achievable hostile acquisition attempt from Egypt that it has approached the investment bank Merrill Lynch to mount a defence. The paper further reports that Telekom Austria may attempt to accelerate its buy-back programme in order to protect itself from a hostile takeover, as well as find rich investors willing to stave off the attempts of Orascom. Austria's saviors could potentially be the Spanish Telefonica, the Turkish Turkcell, Norwegian Telenor and Russian VimpelCom. Apparently, the group is determined to hold a 20 percent stake, some $750 million, in Telekom Austria, with roughly 15 percent of it from stock already owned by the United States investment house, Capital Research and Management. Austria Telekom CEO Hannes Ametsreiter has denied knowing anything about share acquisitions being made by Pecik. He also refused to comment on the hiring of Merrill Lynch, rumored to be finalized this week. BM
