As part of its Privatization Programme the Hellenic Republic was required to divest a further 5% from OTE (which was subjected to the Shareholders’ Agreement with Deutsche Telekom), a process triggering complex and intense negotiations between Deutsche Telekom and the Hellenic Republic in order to amend the Shareholder’s Agreement in OTE, amongst others, by abolishing various rights of the HR, changing the governance of OTE SA and allowing a further divestment of 5% thereby, on which DTAG has a rights of first refusal. Such divestment took place in May 2018 following a relevant tender process launched by the HRADF (which did not result in any other investor submitting an offer for such stake). Our firm provided advice to Deutsche Telekom on all aspects of the transaction, ranging from compliance to public procurement requirements (in relation to the HRADF’s tender process) to the M&A element of the transaction (including the negotiation and preparation of the necessary transaction documents) to the capital markets requirements necessary for the transfer of shares listed in the Athens exchange. Our firm has been advising Deutsche Telekom AG since 2008 in relation to its €4.5bn investment of Deutsche Telekom in the OTE, corresponding to 40% in OTE and constituting the largest privatization to have ever taken place in Greece.
