Negotiations between the Latvian government and the telecommunications company LLC “Latvijas mobilais telefons” (LMT) and the second shareholder of LLC “Tet” – Swedish “Telia” – should be brought to a scenario that is beneficial to Latvian society, said LMT President Juris Binde in an interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds.
He pointed out that the Latvian state and Telia have diametrically opposed interests. “The different stories that we’re going to have a new contract now and everything’s going to be okay are like with a broken marriage–a new marriage contract won’t solve anything. This is the first problem that needs resolving. Once this is done, we will be able to address other problems step by step,” said Binde.
Among other things, he explained that Telia has defined the Baltic States as their home market and that in this market the company can only engage in telecommunication services, although in Sweden Telia is also very active in the military industry.
“The best thing would be to divorce this marriage on reasonable terms, as normal families tend to do. The Latvian side needs another investor who is interested in this type of growth,” said Binde.
The President of the LMT also stated that “Tet” is another problem.” Tet is the second problem, as the company’s financial performance has deteriorated significantly in recent years.
“Tet” does not even publish its quarterly results this year,” he added.
At the same time, he noted that the offer of Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (LVRCT) to acquire “Tet” shares in order to acquire and create strategic infrastructure is a very reasonable offer, while the LMT could acquire “Tet” customer portfolio.
“At the moment, “Tet” resembles a bully trying to crush other children’s sand castles at a playground,” said Binde, adding that the Recovery and Resilience Fund had planned to allocate a dozen million euros to compose Via Baltica optic infrastructure. This money was planned to be provided to LVRTC, but “Tet” protested against this and the money was lost.
Binde also expressed the opinion that, at the political level, Latvian politicians have made the maximum effort so far, including negotiations both at the level of prime ministers and at the level of defence and foreign ministers, but Sweden’s response is that the state cannot influence a private company.
“We don’t need to lead [negotiations] towards anything. We need to lead [negotiations] towards a scenario that is beneficial to the Latvian society. Saying that something needs to be done, then something will come out. It would be very good if something good came out, because so far almost every government has done something, something that has been followed by parliamentary investigation commissions and various other troubles. It would be good if this time it could be avoided,” said Binde.
On the 16th of July the Latvian government agreed behind closed doors on future steps in negotiations with Telia and ordered the Ministry of Economics to lead these negotiations. An information report on the results of the negotiations between the Tet and the LMT shareholders is currently being prepared, which is planned to be submitted to the government in the near future.