Deutsche Telekom AG has withdrawn from one of the three international consortia bidding for a stake in Spain’s second telephone operator, Retevision SA (CI Nos 2,985, 3,145). Deutsche Telekom pulled out at the last minute because of balance sheet restraints. It was part of a consortium known as Opera which included Banco Central Hispanoamericano of Spain, France Telecom SA and Sprint Corp of the US. The company said that if Opera won the auction it may re-join the group on the Spanish Market. The second consortia contending is formed by Empresa Nacional de Electricidad and Italy’s state-owned Societa Finanziara Telefonica per Azioni while the third is Mannesmann AG – the German mobile telephone company which will bid on its own after AT&T Co, Mannesmann’s planned partner, decided to stay out of the race.
