The €3.5bn ($4.6bn) auction for Tim Hellas Telecommunications, Greece's largest buy-out deal when it was acquired last year, has narrowed to three suitors, reports Peter Smith in London.

Tim Hellas is being targeted by Turkcell, Turkey's mobile phone operator; Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates-based telecoms group; and Providence Equity, the US buy-out group that is a specialist telecoms investor.