Romanian diversified telecom operator RCS & RDS will sell up to 25% of its shares in an IPO scheduled for this May.

The value of the company is evaluated at €1.5bn-2bn, so the IPO size is consequently expected at €500mn-600mn. It would follow the December 2016 IPO of healthcare provider Medlife, the first of a Romanian private company since the onset of the global financial crisis.

The shares will be class B, which gives owners a full dividend but only one voting right per share (as opposed to 10 voting rights to class A share owners), economica.net reported, quoting Dutch-registered parent company Digi Communications.

Digi Communications, formerly Cable Communications Systems, owns 95.79% in RCS & RDS, the Romanian company that owns in its turn other companies of the group, Bursa daily specified. Bursa daily comments, however, on the vague note of the press release, expressing doubts about the feasibility of such a quick IPO.

RCS & RDS, founded in the 1990s by local entrepreneur Zoltan Teszari as a TV cable services provider, diversified into internet services in the 2000s and 10 years later into mobile voice and data services. It is still controlled by its founder who, however, currently owns only 47% of the shares, according to ZF daily. In its most recent strategic diversification, the company entered the power supply services market and wants to develop its own distribution networks.

In January-September last year, the group, which operates on foreign markets (Hungary, Spain and Italy) as well as in Romania, reported €617mn revenues. The company has high indebtedness though, with a total net debt of €708mn.