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Articles & publications
02.06.2010
Svyazinvest to hand over 100% stake in Sky Link to Rostelecom by end of the yearRIA Novosti
Svyazinvest telecommunications holding is expected by the end of the year to assign a 100% stake in CDMA operator Sky Link to Rostelecom. The holding will receive this equity stake as part of an asset exchange between the state and AFK Sistema, RIA Novosti learned on Wednesday from the general director of Svyazinvest, Evgeny Yurchenko.
“Sky Link will be taken over by Svyazinvest during the upcoming asset swap, but the final beneficiary of the operator will be Rostelecom”, Yurchenko pointed out.
Mr. Yurchenko went on to explain that the deal whereby the cellular operator is to be turned over to Rostelecom has not yet been structured.
In line with the asset exchange transaction, Comstar-UTS (a subsidiary of AFK Sistema) will give back to the state its blocking stake in Svyazinvest in return for which it will get 23.3% of the charter capital of MGTS and also have its RUR 26 bln debt to Sberbank written off.
AFK Sistema, in turn, will hand over a 100% stake in Sky Link and pay the holding an additional RUR 450 mln. Rostelecom is expected to purchase a blocking stake in Svyazinvest from Comstar-UTS and the proceeds will be used to repay the company’s debt to Sberbank.
Svyazinvest holding is currently in the process of reorganization during which the holding’s subsidiaries are to be merged on the basis of Rostelecom.
As reported earlier by the holding’s management, the merged Rostelecom intends to turn into “a national champion”, which means strengthening its positions on the cellular telephony market.
At present, the Svyazinvest Group of companies consists of 15 independent cellular operators which provide services in 29 regions and four federal districts of the Russian Federation. The combined subscriber base of these companies numbered 16 mln users, at the end of 2009, which corresponds to about 9% of the market against 25-33% on the part of federal operators, according to the holding’s data.
In March, Rostelecom was awarded licenses to provide wireless cellular Internet access services within the 2.3-2.4 GHz bandwidth in 39 regions of all federal operators. The company expects to roll out fourth generation (4G) networks using LTE technology.
The holding has no cellular assets in Moscow. In addition, Sky Link owns licenses throughout the country, including GSM licenses.
According to earlier reports, Mobitel, owned by Svyazinvest, will be placed in charge of managing the holding’s cellular assets.
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