Telekom Romania Communications, the former Romtelecom, will sell its Telephone Palace, its former headquarters, and two other adjoining properties located on Calea Victoriei in Bucharest, for a starting price of EUR 21.6 million. This is part of the company’s strategy to sell its non-core assets, including its portfolio of real-estate properties, and to focus on its main services.

“Our real estate strategy is fully aligned with our aim of becoming the No.1 convergent telecom & entertainment services provider in Romania. This means to stay focused on our main activities and capitalize the assets related to non-core ones, including real-estate portfolio”, said Andreas Grünewald, Chief Suply Chain Officer for Telekom Romania Group.

The three properties that make this package, which is the most valuable that Telekom Romania currently has for sale, are located close to Piata Universitatii square in a central part of Bucharest, next to Novotel hotel. The market value of the package, aligned with current market value of properties similar as size and relevance, was determined by independent evaluators, the company has announced.

The transaction will be rolled via a tender and the winner will be the entity having the best offer in terms of price and other relevant conditions. Interested investors should submit their offers plus letters of guarantee by October 20, 2014.

The Telephone Palace is one of Bucharest’s historical buildings. It was built between 1931 and 1933 and inaugurated in 1934 in the presence of King Carol II. It was the first major modernist building on Bucharest's Calea Victoriei and until 1956 it was also the tallest building in Bucharest.

The building has 12,000 sqm of usable area and is located on a 1,900 sqm plot. The other two properties for sale in this package are the Tandem building, located just behind the Telephone Palace and the Matei Milo parking lot, which serves the two buildings.

Telekom Romania launched a special website where it posted all of its properties for sale or for rent.

Deutsche Telekom group, which controls Telekom Romania Communications and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (the former Cosmote Romania), recently rebranded its operations in Romania and launched its “T” brand on the local market. The group also launched the first integrated fixed and mobile telecommunications service packages.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com