The fee offered by UBS for the sale of 46% in RomTelecom amounted to 0.95% of the total value of the deal, while CSFB, winner of the tender, supposedly offered 1.4%.
UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland), Switzerland”s biggest bank and one of the largest in Europe, is contesting the outcome of the tender organised by the Communications Ministry for the selection of the consultant to sell the last stake in RomTelecom still owned by the state.
UBS says that, on the basis of information it holds, it offered a much lower intermediation fee (0.95%) than the one CSFB (Credit Suisse First Boston) won the tender with, namely 1.4%.
The value of the deal is likely to exceed one billion euros, meaning that the difference between the offers submitted by UBS and CSFB would amount to several million euros.
“We consider as highly surprising the fact that the ministry rejected the proposal forwarded by our consortium, which offered a 50% lower price and which had international and domestic expertise that at least matched that of the tender winner. This is highly surprising. Costs to the Romanian budget are important,” a UBS spokesperson told Ziarul Financiar.
He mentioned that the bank was considering every option, including legally disputing the outcome of the tender.
Beside UBS, the consortium also includes ING bank, the biggest broker on the Romanian market, according to the “Brokers” Top”, in terms of the value of deals handled on the Stock Exchange. CSFB participated in the tender as part of a consortium with IEBA Trust brokerage, which last year ranked 29th in the stock exchange top.
Minister of Communications Zsolt Nagy replied that the selection of the consultant was based on several criteria, with the most important being the financial component, international expertise and the listings handled on the market. “Credit Suisse First Boston was chosen on the basis of several criteria, with the requested fee as an important, but not exclusive, criterion. We sought someone with solid expertise that could offer the necessary counselling services,” the minister told ZF. The state, through the Communications Ministry, wants to sell its final stake of 45.9% that it owns in RomTelecom, through the stock exchange, both on the Bucharest and on the London stock exchange.
Nine consortia were present at the tender: CA-IB, Goldman Sachs, ABN-Amro and Rotschild, Citibank, EFG Eurobank and Ergasias; Credit Swiss First Boston (CSFB) and IEBA Trust; Deutsche Bank, BRD Securities and Alpha Finance; HSBC, BCR Securities and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein; JP Morgan, RAEF, Intercapital Invest and Linklaters; Merrill Lynch and BT Securities; Morgan Stanley and Raiffeisen Bank; as well as UBS, ING Securities and CET.