Sale of Top Bosnia Telecom 'Unlikely' in 2012

The general manager of BH Telecom, Nedzad Residbegovic, said he had doubts that the government would sell the company in 2012, as it previously announced.

“That is a political matter,” said Rasidbegovic, “but as far as I know investment activity has decreased and it would not be the right thing to do at this point since they would not get a good price.”

He added that BH Telecom contributes significantly to the budget of the Bosniak-Croat federation, one of Bosnia's two entities, and he did not see any reason for privatization to take place at the moment.

The company's expected revenue for 2011 is around €308 million, with a profit expected at €75 million; both figures would represent a drop of around 2,5 per cent compared to last year.

The largest of the three telecoms companies in Bosnia, BH Telecom is 90-per cent owned by the government of the Federation. The company has users mostly in Bosniak majority areas.

M:tel, Bosnia's third telecom firm, has recently begun taking some customers from BH Telecom, which previously covered more than 50 percent of the country's market. M:tel is owned by the state telecom of neighbouring Serbia and mainly provides services to users in the predominantly Serb Republika Srpska.

BH Telecom has lost some market share, mainly to M:tel, and the company's market share is now around 45 per cent.

Residbegovic said BH Telecom increased its internet users to 125,000 in 2011 and the number of mobile network users to 1,700,000, with the number of active users around 1,400,000 people.

Bosnia's second telecom firm is HT Mostar, which operates mostly in areas of the Federation where Croats make up the majority.