Prague gives go ahead for Cesky Telecom bidders

The Czech government has announced that all five companies short-listed to buy the state-controlled telephone company Cesky Telecom http://www.telecom.cz can go ahead and make formal bids. "The government has approved all five entities to proceed into the final bidding round," said Bohuslav Sobotka, the Czech Republic's finance minister. As the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) http://www.wsj.com reports, earlier in the week the Czech government commission on the sale of Cesky Telecom short-listed three telecommunications operators and two financial consortiums after receiving their initial bids for the state's 51.1 per cent in Cesky Telecom, valued by analysts at around 2 billion euros.