Govt. to purchase Sistema assets (Russia)

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Russian government has reportedly reached an agreement with Sistema to buy its holdings in Svyazinvest and SkyLink. The report, which cites a letter from Communications Minister Igor Shchyogolev to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, claims that as part of the government’s plans to play a bigger role in the telecoms industry it will take on Sistema’s RUB26 billion (USD827.7 million) debt to Siberbank in order to acquire the conglomerate’s 25% plus one share stake in telecoms group Svyazinvest and its 50% stake in mobile operator SkyLink. With this agreement, the government will get 100% control over Svyazinvest’s operations.