"...the share of traditional fixed-line investment of the total budget would fall from 60 per cent in 1999 to a planned 40 per cent in three years' time. Investment would focus instead on mobile telephony, data transmission and packet switching, he said..."
Now tell me if fixed line is dying or not!
TPSA details spending plans
By Stefan Wagstyl, East Europe Editor
Published: February 19 2001 01:45GMT | Last Updated: February 19 2001 01:49GMT
TPSA, the Polish telecommunications group that last week defied investor caution in the telecoms sector with a E500m bond issue, plans to concentrate investments on mobile and data-linked services.
Donald Chodak, finance director, said the share of traditional fixed-line investment of the total budget would fall from 60 per cent in 1999 to a planned 40 per cent in three years' time. Investment would focus instead on mobile telephony, data transmission and packet switching, he said.
The group, in which France Telecom has a strategic stake, has fulfilled an obligation to ensure at least 25 per cent of Polish homes had telephone connections. By the year-end the figure had reached 27 per cent.
TPSA completed its bond offering on Friday despite the current fund-raising difficulties faced by many larger telecoms groups. The five-year issue, its fourth since 1998, carries a coupon of 6.625 per cent.
Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the US investment bank, and Germany's Deutsche Bank, which jointly managed the offer, warned against interpreting the success as a sign of recovery in investor sentiment towards global telecoms groups.
They said the issue instead reflected interest in the economic potential of the eastern European region and of TPSA in particular.
Mr Chodak said TPSA might return to the international market this year for a further E500m. In the longer term, he hoped to raise funds in Polish zloty as the Polish capital market was growing and funds were becoming available for longer maturities, such as for five years.
Since interest rates in Poland were falling towards EU levels, it could in the next year or so become cheaper to raise money there than in the international market, he said. |
