KPN, the Dutch telecoms firm, and Swisscom, the Swiss telecoms group, are to sell their jointly-held €767m ($879m) stake in Cesky Telecom, the Czech telecommunications company, as the complex system of crossholdings in the Czech telecoms market continues to unravel.

KPN and Swisscom jointly hold a 27% stake through their consortium TelSource, which will be sold via a secondary offering before the end of the year. The Czech government hopes to privatise Cesky Telecom by 2005, simplifying the ownership of telecoms companies in the Czech Republic.