Korea Telecom to sell SK Tel stake to aid 3G-CEO

date: 29th January 2001, source: reuters.com

Korea Telecom, the nation's largest fixed-line telecom company, said on Monday it would sell its stake in SK Telecom to raise funds needed for third generation (3G) mobile services.

"We will sell our stake in SK Telecom, not in a lump sum but in tranches, to raise funds for 3G services and other purposes," Korea Telecom chief executive officer Lee Sang-chul told Reuters in an interview. "We need a lot of money for our new projects."

The state-run telecom giant has a 13.87 percent stake in SK Telecom, the nation's largest mobile carrier.

Lee said the company was in talks with two or three U.S. and Asian telecom firms to sell a 15 percent stake in it as part of a privatisation programme.

"We signed MOUs with some of the foreign companies and signed confidential agreements with others. We are trying to produce concrete results by the end of February," Lee said.

He said Korea Telecom would also cut 1,600 jobs through various measures, including spinoffs by the end of April, as was planned under a government restructuring programme.

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