|
Articles & publications
17.03.2010
Evgeny Yurchenko announces fund: Head of Svyazinvest to invest in innovationKommersant, Inna Erokhina, Alexander Malakhov
The director general of Svyazinvest Evgeny Yurchenko has decided to set up a venture fund. The fund’s charter capital consists of RUR 1 bln, with contributions to be made in cash and partly in shares of Svyazinvest’s regional telecommunications companies owned by the top manager. Mr. Yurchenko plans to invest in innovation, including in the area of broadband Internet access. Market turnover from mobile Internet access (Wimax and Wi-Fi) in Russia approved $1 bln lat year.
Kommersant talked with Evgeny Yurchenko about his plans to invest in Russian innovation projects. “I’m interested in high-tech innovative solutions, mainly mobile broadband Internet. The development of this area is the most promising for fixed-line companies”, he said. According to Mr. Yurchenko, the fund’s charter capital – up to RUR 1 bln – could be formed both using cash and partly the shares of regional telecom companies controlled by Svyazinvest. Evgeny Yurchenko is a minority shareholder of all the regional telecommunications operators (RTOs) of Svyazinvest and Rostelecom (see more details on p. 14). Mr. Yurchenko does not rule out that he could be assisted by some partners in setting up this fund.
IT and Internet investments in Russia are carried out by such funds as Mangrove Capital (Quintura search engine, Internet store Kupivip.ru), ABRT (Internet store Kupivip.ru), Allianz ÐÎÑÍÎ (videoportal tvigle.ru), etc. A venture fund with a RUR 1.5 bln charter capital to finance IT and Internet service projects is also run by the Telecommunications Ministry. The plan is for the fund managers to invest in the fund based on the principle of private and state partnership.
In 2007 AFK Sistema corporation made an attempt to launch venture fund financing. The corporation set up Coral/Sistema Strategic Fund, which was to invest in foreign IT and telecommunications companies, the development of which could be beneficial to AFK Sistema. The founding members of the fund were AFK Sistema and its subsidiaries – operators MTS and Comstar-UTS, as well as Sitronics. A report was made at the time the fund was set up that the initial capital under management would amount to $75 mln. During the summer of the same year the fund announced the acquisition for $75 mln of a minority stake in Israeli company Exanet, which specializes in network attached storage (NAS). In April 2008 the fund acquired a minority stake in international Wi-Fi network FON, which provides Wi-Fi roaming in dozens of countries. Yesterday, Sistema’s press secretary Yulia Belous told Kommersant that all in all, the fund has invested in six high-tech companies. However, she declined to name the companies or the amount of investments made in them.
A top manager of a large investment fund believes that Evgeny Yurchenko’s fund could theoretically compete on the markets for developing software or distributing content for broadband Internet networks. “Most likely, though, it will be localized assembly of equipment for Russia used in building the networks of some foreign manufacturer”, Kommersant’s source believes. The source also believes that there will not be many foreign companies that would like to take part in this project, since Svyazinvest recently won the overwhelming majority of licenses for the provision of fourth-generation telecom services (mobile Wimax and LTE).
Wireless broadband Internet technology is a broad concept, notes Aleksei Kurasov, corporate finance manager at Finam investment company. “Specifically, it includes 3G telecom solutions. All in all, the turnover from wireless broadband Internet last year in Russia approached $1 bln, which is three times less than for wireline Internet access. Mobile broadband Internet is definitely and interesting segment which can generate strong profits and strong growth in the value of assets”, Mr. Kurasov went on to say.
|
