Vodafone may be ready to sell Polish operator stake

WARSAW: Vodafone may be interested inselling its stake in Poland's top mobile operator Polkomtel along with the restof its Polish owners, the head of energy group PGE said onWednesday.

PGE and other state-controlled Polish companies thattogether control 75 percent of Polkmotel have been in talks to jointly selltheir controlling stake, possibly by floating it on the Warsaw bourse. Someanalysts see Vodafone, which owns the remaining 25 percent, as a natural buyerof the rest of Polkomtel, but PGE said it could instead join thesellers.

"I confirm that it is possible to sell 100 percent ofPolkomtel," Chief Executive Tomasz Zadroga told reporters on the sidelines of anannual meeting. "Vodafone expressed preliminary interest (in selling its stakeas well)." A Vodafone spokesman declined to comment.

The world'slargest mobile phone operator has been focusing on emerging markets with highgrowth potential and may be reluctant to invest more in the saturated Polishmarket. When Danish telecoms group TDC sold its Polkomtel stakein 2008, the deal valued the Polish operator at some 3.7 billion euros ($5billion).