Orange fancies a slice of $2.3bn Czech telco

NEWS Orange is among a number of potential bidders thought to be sniffing around Czech state-owned telecom Cesky. The UK mobile phone operator, owned by France Telecom, is thought to be interested in the company's mobile phone arm, Eurotel, though the Czech government is adamant it is a 51 per cent stake in Cesky up for sale - with no concessions made to bidders interested solely in purchasing select units. The government will also refuse to negotiate below an asking price of $2.3bn. According to the Financial Times a number of other parties, including Swisscom and OTE of Greece, are interested in the stake, and Orange has offered to buy Eurotel from whichever consortium is successful in its bid for the stake. Mobile phones have been a boom industry in the Czech Republic in recent times - though a 3G auction faltered last year due to a lack of interest.