Three out of six invited consulting companies have submitted their offers to the Croatian Government for the continuation of the privatization of the Croatian Telecommunications.
The three offers for the selection of a financial consultant were made by Merrill Lynch together with Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich, the Citigroup with Privredna Banka Zagreb and JP Morgan.
The technical segments of their offers were opened on Monday by the Croatian Privatization Fund (HFP), but the fund released only the name of the bidders.
In mid-March, the Croatian government said that it was planning to invite applications for a financial adviser for the third stage of privatization of Croatian Telecom (HT), which is expected to be completed by the year's end.
"We don't want a speedy privatization, but to achieve the best possible price," Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said then.
Sanader recalled that privatization proceeds would be used to cover the debt to pensioners, with the first payments to be made in late June. He said that there was no need to rush the third state of privatization because funds for the payment of the first debt installment had been secured.