Mišković to sell his share in "M:tel" in Republic of Srpska?

- Serbian businessman Miroslav Mišković, the owner of 49% of Montenegrin "M:tel", will soon sell his shares in "M:tel" of Republic of Srpska - RTCG announced, citing Podgorica's portal Analitika.

According to the sources from Montenegrin "M:tel", intensive negotiations have been led over the last two months between Mišković's company "Ogalar" from Netherlands and the representatives of "Telekom Slovenia".

After unsuccessful end of the negotiations with Slovenians, Serbian business received the offer from company "M:tel" from Republic of Srpska and, according to the same sources, the sales contract is expected to be signed at the beginning of the next year.

In that way, the state of Serbia, the owner of "M:tel" RS, will gain 100% control over the third mobile operator in Montenegro.

Those who know the situation in the telecommunication market are not amazed by the decision of Serbia to indirectly take over absolute control over Montenegrin "M:tel".

- If they tried to take over the company directly through Telekom Srbija, they would then have to ask Greek OTE, minority stockholder, for permission. In this case, they don't have to do that - claims the source of Analitika.

Company "M:tel" was put in operation in Montenegro in July 2007.

The Executive Director at the time, Zlatko Trhulj, ambitiously announced that they planned to win about 15% of the market in Montenegro by the end of that year, and even 30% by the end of 2008.

He had to resign from the position last year, and the media speculated that the reason for his resignation was "conflict with the headquarters in Belgrade and relatively bad business results".

Trhulj's expectations have not come true since, according to the date provided by the Agency for Electronic Communications, "M:tel" had the share of 28.46% in the mobile telephony market at the end of November 2009.

However, the company's share in the postpaid users market is relatively bad since it has only 44,163 (14.5%) out of total of 302,538 postpaid users in Montenegro.

It is obvious that the majority owner of "M:tel", the state of Serbia, plans to change that situation.

The changes in the ownership structure of "M:tel" could easily reflect the staff structure in Montenegrin-based branch office where the people close to the most famous Montenegrin businessmen are dominant.

- If that transaction is realized, that nothing will be the same as before - said the sources of Analitika.