UPDATE 1-Hutchison seeks bids for Partner this week -paper

TEL AVIV, July 6 (Reuters) - Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa has asked potential buyers to submit bids for its majority stake in Israel's Partner Communications by Wednesday, the Maariv newspaper said on Monday. Israel's Scailex Corp meanwhile said it was among those interested in Partner, Israel's second-largest mobile phone operator, which is 51 percent owned by Hutchison Telecommunications International, which is in turn controlled by Hutchison Whampoa. "At this stage we are talking about an initial examination, and there is no certainty the company will advance with this examination," Scailex said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Maariv said the stake was worth an estimated $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion. Partner, which has a market cap of 10.3 billion shekels ($2.7 billion), was not immediately available to comment. According to Maariv, other potential buyers include the Israeli communications group Eurocom, a shareholder in the YES satellite television operator, as well as the FIMI mezzanine and buyout fund. ($1 = 3.88 shekels) (Reporting by Tova Cohen, editing by Will Waterman) Keywords: PARTNER HUTCHISON/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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