Telekom Austria chairman Rudolf Kemler told shareholders that the company is not planning to expand in Eastern Europe in partnership with shareholder America Movil, reports Reuters.

Media reports said the Austrian number-one had set up a holding company to fund the expansion in collaboration with the Latin American operator group, which took a 23 per cent stake in Telekom Austria last year.

“There are no concrete plans for an eastern Europe expansion, and we are not planning to set up a holding company,” Rudolf Kemler said in the company’s annual general meeting, adding that the need for extra capital for an acquisition is “not an issue at the moment”.

Telekom Austria already has operations in central and Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria, Croatia and Belarus.

Like many European operators, Telekom Austria has seen declines in voice and SMS revenue and is suffering from increased price regulation. It forecast a revenue drop for 2013 and is cutting capital expenditure and costs.

America Movil also bought into Dutch operator KPN in 2012, fuelling speculation that it is using the investments as beachheads into the European market as it faces increased regulation and competition in Latin America.

Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Telekom Austria, said the company is looking at international synergies with America Movil and KPN around wholesale purchasing and network infrastructure. “We’ll have more to say about that in due course,” he said.