OREANDA-NEWS. On January 24, 2007 Ivars Godmanis, Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, met Kenneth Karlberg, Head of Mobility Services at TeliaSonera, a shareholder of Lattelekom Ltd., and other representatives of the company to discuss issues regarding the privatisation of Lattelekom. Ainars Slesers, Minister for Transport, and Kaspars Gerhards, Minister for Economics, also participated in the discussion, reported the Official website www.mk.gov.lv.

The Prime Minister emphasised that the Government of Latvia is interested in promoting the competitiveness in Latvia’s telecommunications market and seeking for the most favourable and opened solution for the privatisation of Lattelekom.

Ivars Godmanis expressed an offer to TeliaSonera to purchase state-owned shares of mobile operator Latvijas Mobilais telefons (LMT) if TeliaSonera sells 49% of its shares of Lattelecom to another company. Previously, a proposal to obtain shares of Lattelekom was expressed by The Blackstone Group, a US private equity fund.

The Head of the Government stressed that 51% of the Lattelekom shares owned by the state will be sold by public auction for the highest possible price, carrying out a selection of bidders and stating that the participants of the auction may be companies earning an international reputation with an experience in telecommunications companies operating within the European Economic Area.

The representatives of TeliaSonera reaffirmed their interest in purchasing the shares of both the mobile operator LMT, and of fixed telecommunications operator Lattelekom which state-owned shares account for 51 percent. The representatives of TeliaSonera emphasised their advantages – the competence in Latvian telecommunications market and their participation in it since 1991, as well as their operation in Lithuania, Estonia and other northern countries of Europe, by observing the competition provisions of the European Union.

The parties agreed on considering the possible solutions for selling shares of the telecommunications companies and hold another meeting on February 6 this year.