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Articles & publications
13.05.2010
Rostelecom still has its sights set on MegaFon: negotiations on buying out Alisher Usmanov’s stake to resume this summerRBC daily, Anton Bursak
Negotiations on Rostelecom’s purchase of Alisher Usmanov’s equity position in MegaFon are to resume this year, the general director of Svyazinvest Evgeny Yurchenko told journalists yesterday. He said that the negotiations had been frozen during the restructuring of Svyazinvest’s telecom assets so as not to complicate the discussion process regarding the swap ratios with minority shareholders.
“We have an understanding that the negotiations could continue after a decision is reached (by the shareholders of the regional telecommunications operators of Svyazinvest – RBC Daily) on the reorganization of the holding. This will be in 2010, by the end of summer. We’ve adopted a decision not to make shareholders nervous and not engage in any negotiations until the final decision is reached on the reorganization of Svyazinvest”, new agency RBC quoted Evgeny Yurchenko as saying. According to Mr. Yurchenko, Svyazinvest is conducting negotiations with only one MegaFon shareholder – Alisher Usmanov. “We will be pleased to see any constructive collaboration with Svyazinvest”, the general director of Telecominvest (which owns Alisher Usmanov’s 74% stake in AF Telecom) Ivan Streshinsky told RBC Daily.
RBC Daily sources said at the beginning of January that MegaFon and Svyazinvest are expected to sign a partnership memorandum. However, no such paper was ever signed. And in March 2010, as RBC Daily learned, the negotiations between the management of Svyazinvest and representatives of Alisher Usmanov were terminated.
The other two large shareholders of MegaFon, Swedish-Finnish TeliaSonera and Russian Altimo, whose combined holdings make up about 69% of the operator, are not conducting negotiations with Svyazinvest. In April 2010 Telecominvest filed a court claim aimed at suspending the agreement between TeliaSonera and Altimo, which plan to merge MegaFon with Turkish Turkcell.
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