HT announces that the submission of offers for the acquisition of shares of the company OT-OPTIMA TELEKOM d.d. has finished

Croatian Telecom (Reuters: HT.ZA; Bloomberg: HTRA CZ; the Company), Croatia’s leading telecommunications provider, announces that the procedure of the submission of offers in accordance with the Invitation for Submission of Offers for the Acquisition of Shares in OT-OPTIMA TELEKOM d.d. (hereinafter: the ‘Invitation’) finished on 18 March 2020 at 16:00 hours. Abiding by the principles of transparency, objectivity and non-discrimination as set out by a resolution of the Croatian Competition Agency (hereinafter: ‘AZTN’); CLASS: UP/I 034-03/2013-02/007, REG.NO.: 580-11/41-17-239 dated 9 June 2017 (hereinafter: the 'Resolution'), HT will keep informing AZTN on all relevant steps in the international public tender procedure because it is obliged to do so in accordance with the conditions as set out by the Resolution. While reporting to ATZN, HT will abide by the provisions of the Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (Market Abuse Regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC, Capital Markets Act as well as other applicable regulations and will, in this sense, whenever necessary, undertake measures for postponing the announcement of privileged information.

The public announcement of an international advertisment by HT represents the fulfillment of a regulatory obligation already known to the public and is not aimed at making the complete sales process public. A public sales process is not in accordance with the best practice, and could endanger the implementation of the sales process, especially considering the current market conditions. In that sense, HT is obliged to take into account the prevention of market manipulation and does not plan to make separate announcements on the sales process until it is finished.