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SOD said that the decision to hire a legal adviser was made in the face of the restively broad legal field involved in the sale and of the importance of the transaction.

White & Case, in cooperation with Ulčar & partnerji, was selected among seven applicants, which also included Citigroup.

SOD management board member Matej Runjak has recently told the STA that there is a lot of interest for the Slovenian telco. He added that SOD was striving to create equal conditions for rival bidders and pick the best one.

"At this stage of the sales procedures it would not be fair to comment on any names," he said, as media have been mentioning Deutsche Telekom, Russia's Sistema Holding and Gazprom Telekom, Turkey's Türk Telekom and Norwegian telco giant Telenor as potential bidders.

Telekom, in 72.75% state ownership, is the biggest of the 15 state-owned companies slated for privatisation by the government.