Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sold a two-year-old stake in a fund that owns Czech telecommunications company Ceske Radiokomunikace AS for 365 million euros ($471 million), two people familiar with the matter said.

Lehman’s European merchant-banking unit made a $174 million profit by selling its 37.3 percent stake in Falcon Group, a fund created for the Czech investment, to Mid Europa Partners, one of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the price isn’t public.

Some proceeds go to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Lehman’s bankruptcy administrator in Europe, the person said. PWC spokeswoman Emma Thorogood declined to comment. New York-based Lehman is selling assets to raise cash after filing for the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history on Sept. 15.

The deal lifts Mid Europa’s holding in Falcon to 75 percent, the firm said on its Web site. Agnes Riousse, a London- based spokeswoman for the firm, declined to comment on the price. Mid Europa, a private-equity firm focused on Central and Eastern Europe, has offices in Budapest, London and Warsaw.

Mid Europa teamed up with Lehman in 2006 to buy Prague- based Radiokomunikace, which owns 39 percent of T-Mobile Czech Republic AS, the nation’s biggest mobile operator. The buyers paid 1.2 billion euros in what was the nation’s biggest leveraged buyout at the time.

Radiokomunikace, founded in 1963, is a television and radio broadcaster and fixed-line phone provider.

Δημοσιεύθηκε στις 10/12/2008