TELE Danmark is understood to have lodged a higher cash bid than KPN/Telia for the 35 per cent stake in Telecom Eireann. The Danish company is now understood to be seeking a partner to strengthen its bid.
Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency is standing firmly over its report that the proposed Telia investment in the telecommunications company is worth around £200 million.
The Dutch/Swedish consortium, KPN/Telia has been seen as the frontrunner to form a strategic alliance with Telecom because of its connection to a global network. While the consortium is seen as more attractive because of this connection, its cash offer - believed to be not far over £200 million - is lower than that of Tele Danmark. It is not clear how much more Tele Danmark has offered.
Telia director Mr Stig Johansson was quoted on Monday as stating that his company's bid for Telecom "entails an investment of about a billion crowns for Telia".
A doubling of this figure to allow for the investment of Telia's 50 per cent partner, KPN, indicated that the offer from the consortium was around £200 million and possibly just below this figure. It is now understood that the KPN/Telia offer is slightly over £200 million.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Minister for Communications, Mr Lowry, said that it was "inaccurate" to say that the figure was less than £200 million.
The Minister took the unusual step on Tuesday of issuing to the media a letter from Mr Johansson concerning the comment.
In the letter, Mr Johansson maintained he said the Telia investment "was closer to one than 10 billion crowns". He maintained that he made this comment because "the reporter declared that he knew that our bid was about 10 billion crowns". Mr Johansson also referred to comments he made to the Swedish financial news agency TT.
Last night, Reuters' chief correspondent for the Nordic countries, Mr Simon Haydon, said: "We are standing by our story 100 per cent. The figure quoted was an accurate reflection of what Mr Johansson told our reporter and the Swedish news agency, TT."
As controversy continued about the Government's handling of the sale of the Telecom stake, the vice chairman of the Joint Committee on Commercial Stated sponsored Bodies said the indicative offers from the bidders were "unacceptable".
Fianna Fail TD Mr Martin Cullen called on Mr Lowry to "put the issue of the strategic alliance on hold until substantial progress on internal restructuring has been achieved" at Telecom.
This would "have the effect of bringing back more potential partners into the fray and of achieving a much more realistic price for a stake in Telecom Eireann" he said.
As Mr Lowry presses ahead with the process, he has stated that the preliminary bids are only indicative figures. "There is a lot of processing and evaluation to be done before there will be a final definitive figure," he told The Irish Times.
