A group of investors based in Oman has shown interest in buying a 28.4 percent stake in Telekom Austria. According to the magazine Format, citing a letter from an Austrian businessman, Mirko Kovats wrote to the head of the state holding company OeIAG to express the Omani interest in the stake. He is acting on behalf of the unnamed investor group. Format said OeIAG had ruled out such a sale in its reply to Kovats, the former head of bankrupt Austrian engineering group A-TEC. Asked about the report, an OeIAG spokesman said they are a core shareholder of Telekom Austria. The stake gives the state holding company a blocking minority in the telecoms group. Other investors have been eyeing Telekom Austria in recent weeks. Austrian Ronny Pecik and allied investors last month secured options to buy about 5.5 percent of the group. This triggered a mandatory disclosure from Telekom Austria. It came less than a month after reports said Egypt's Naguib Sawiris, the owner of Orascom Telecom, was planning a hostile takeover using Pecik as a cover.
