Brokerage Patria Finance was chosen last fall to represent all of PVT's shareholders and to lead the privatization of the 96.5 percent stake. Company representatives were not willing to reveal any further information and would not name the companies interested in buying PVT. The company is partly owned by the state bailout agency Czech Consolidation Agency (CKA), which holds a 37 percent stake that was transferred from Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka (CSOB). The bank took over a majority stake in PVT from bankrupt Investicni a Postovni Banka (IPB) in 2000. The Prvni Investicni fund controlled by CSOB holds another 30 percent stake, and the rest of the shares are held by the Cayman Islands structures also controlled by CSOB.
More than money
The privatization consortium led by Patria Finance will look not only at the price offered but also at the bidders' strategic plans for PVT, said Marek Jelinek, who is in charge of the project. The powerful Slovak investment group Penta looks the least likely to get PVT because it has no experience in the information technology sphere. The company buys bankrupt heavy industry factories, restructures and recapitalizes them and sells them on to strategic investors. Recently Penta acquired bankrupt engineering company Adamovske Strojirny and its subsidiaries. The Penta Group is controlled by Penta Holding, based in Cyprus.
However, some sources said Penta is equipped to offer the highest price, unlike its competitors in the privatization.
Pavel Novak, PR manager at AMI Communications, the PR agency that represents Penta in the Czech Republic, would only confirm that Penta is interested in buying PVT and is now closely analyzing the company.
PVT's general director Jiri Fabian said last week that he expected some significant changes after the privatization, including restructuring of PVT's numerous holdings in property and buildings. "Reorganization of assets is very much needed," he said.
Patria's Jelinek said he expected the privatization deal to be closed no later than June. Then the government will have to approve the privatization because the stake held by the CKA is under state ownership and must be approved by the Cabinet.
Electronic signature snafu
However, the Ministry of Informatics has stepped into the game and said it would like to separate PVT's daughter company Prvni Certifikacni, in which PVT holds a 100 percent stake, from the share portfolio offered for privatization.
Prvni Certifikacni is the only company accredited by the government to issue digital certificates for on-line communication, in other words to issue electronic signatures that are valid for communicating with the state administration.
Fabian confirmed that the state has a serious interest in taking control over Prvni Certifikacni. "There are negotiations ongoing between the ministry and shareholders. But I am not aware of any further details," he said. Fabian said he sees the logic in the state's interest. "If we consider that the state wants to go further on the road to digitalization of the state administration, having control over the certification agency is always better than relying on some external partner [the new private owner of PVT]," Fabian said.
Libor Vacek, spokesman at the Ministry of Informatics, said the goal is to keep the company alive in order to have a licensed body issuing certified electronic signatures. "The whole process of building the e-government would be jeopardized if the only provider of the electronic signature would no longer exist or discontinue issuing certificates [after the privatization]," Vacek said.
A few companies on the Czech market, like Globe Internet, issue electronic signatures, but only for commercial purposes. Only Prvni Certifikacni issues a signature that is approved by the IT Ministry.
Mlynar said that a 33 percent share in Prvni Certifikacni should remain in state hands, either in the IT Ministry, Ceska Posta (the Czech post office) or the Statni tiskarna cenin (the state mint) and the remaining 67 percent could be spread among the Czech banks that would be interested in buying such shares. But he added that some shares could remain with PVT. However, potential investors seem to be counting on Prvni Certifikacni being part of the deal. David Tajzich, an analyst at Wood & Company, said that a bidder Wood represents but whom he would not name expected Prvni Certifikacni to be part of the package. "At this moment we don't have any alternative [bidding] scenario," he said.
PVT is one of the biggest information technology and system integration companies in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1994, PVT was in charge of administrating the first round of coupon privatization. It also operates retail securities trading system RM-System. The company posted a preliminary profit of Kc 16.5 million for 2002, down from Kc 181.6 million in 2001. PVT has about 2000 employees.
Quelle: Prague Business Journal
