Telekom goes public soon, EPS not yet

(Photo: ekapija)

President of the Serbian Securities Commission Zoran Cirovic says that Telekom Srbija will soon go public. The situation with the Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS) is somewhat different.

However, he points out that this primarily depends on what the state as the owner decides.

- Although that primarily depends on the state, I expect Telekom shares to be listed on the stock exchange in the near future, which will make it possible for all those who have these shares to freely buy and sell them - says Cirovic.

He also explains that the state, which owns Telekom, should decide when it is the right moment to list the shares in that telecom firm on the Belgrade Stock Exchange.

Cirovic reminds that free shares in Telekom were distributed in April 2012, but he stresses that they are not yet included in trading on the Belgrade Stock Exchange.

Out of the total of one billion shares in Telekom, employees and former employees of the company got 6.94 percent, whereas 15 percent were distributed among citizens.

Cirovic says that the situation with the other large state-owned company - the Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS), is "somewhat different" and that he does not expect that company to go public soon.

According to him, the EPS is not ready yet to enter the stock exchange.

Cirovic explains that the EPS' capital should first be expressed in shares of certain nominal value, after which a further strategy should be determined for that company.

The round table "Institutional Demand for Government Securities: Limitations and Possibilities," held at the Belgrade Institute of Economics, was organized by that institute and the USAID Business Enabling Project.