Friday noon marks the deadline for binding bids for the purchase of nearly half of telco Telekom Slovenije. The government-appointed commission overseeing the sale is expected to reveal as early as today which of the seven shortlisted bidders remain in the game, Slovene Press Agency reported.

Twelve bidders submitted tentative offers for the purchase of the 49.13% state stake in Telekom Slovenije, while seven of them were invited to make binding bids.

The initial deadline on 18 December was extended at the request of several of the shortlisted bidders.

These are the British-German consortium Bain Capital & Axos Capital, joined by BT Global services; the Luxembourg-US fund CEP III/Carlyle, Croatian telco Hrvatski Telekom (which is owned by Deutsche Telekom), Australia's Macquarie Bank, Hungary's Magyar Telekom (also owned by Deutsche Telekom), Oger Telecom of the United Arab Emirates and Skipti of Iceland.

According to press reports, most of the pundits believe Skipti and Magyar Telekom will battle it out for the Slovenian telco in the end.