A Colombian court ordered state-owned telephone company Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota SA (ETB.BO) to temporarily suspend the process of seeking a controlling partner, sending its share price down 11%.

The court ordered the suspension after the labor union of ETB's workers sued the company to oppose the partial privatization, the company said Tuesday in a filing to the local market regulator.

The company said it will appeal the decision.

Last week, ETB had delayed the auction to pick the new controlling partner to Dec. 21 instead of Oct. 16.

Shares of ETB were down 11% to 1,040 Colombian pesos (54 cents) at 10:31 a.m. EDT.

-By Inti Landauro, Dow Jones Newswires; 57-1-610-70-44, ext. 1131; colombia@dowjones.com