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Turk Telecom, Rostelecom and Axos Capital excluded from Kyrgyztelecom tender (Kyrgyzstan)

  • September 4th, 2008
  • 12:03 pm

Turk Telecom has been excluded from the tender purchase of 78% stake in Kyrgyztelecom. This descision came out after the telco’s failure to a pay thr required security deposit within the deadline. Russia’s Rostelecom and Germany’s Axos Capital have also been excluded.

   

Sistema warns Vimpelcom and Telenor about SkyMobile (Kyrgyzstan)

  • October 12th, 2007
  • 2:29 pm

Russian holding group Sistema has released a statement advising cellco Vimpelcom and Norwegian group Telenor, which holds a stake in Vimpelcom, to ‘carefully reanalyse’ their possible participation in the tender for Kyrgyz cellco Sky Mobile. Sistema has also called on Morgan Stanley to reconsider its role in brokering the planned sale of Sky, which owns assets whose ownership Sistema disputes. Sistema’s president Alexander Goncharuk said in the statement, ‘We find it highly surprising that a company whose assets were obtained in an illegitimate manner can be offered for sale by such a major and well-respected international investment bank as Morgan Stanley. Interestingly, this same investment bank offered [Sistema’s] MTS [Mobile TeleSystems] the opportunity to buy back the assets that have been misappropriated from it. We urge Vimpelcom, Telenor and others to consider carefully whether participating in a tender of this nature is proper.’

Sistema’s Russian rival Altimo (part of Alfa Group) announced a tender to sell Sky Mobile last month, and is reported to be hoping to raise USD600 million from the sale. Russian cellco Vimpelcom, which is 44%-owned by Altimo, is thought to be the main contender for Sky. Telenor, which holds a 29% stake in Vimpelcom, earlier came out against the deal, citing the legal risks associated with the Kyrgyz GSM operator. MTS was also invited to participate in the auction. Sky Mobile began operating In July 2006 having taken over the network and brand of existing cellco Bitel. The ownership of Bitel’s assets has been a bone of contention between MTS and Altimo since 2005, and the ongoing dispute is highly complex. Any sale of Sky and the disputed assets by Altimo is likely to muddy the waters even further.

   
 

Megacom’s subscriber base breaks 300,000 (Kyrgyzstan)

  • August 13th, 2007
  • 2:13 pm

Kyrgyzstani GSM cellco Megacom has reported a subscriber base at the end of July 2006 of 300,000, nearly double the 165,000 it had at the end of 2006. Megacom is the name of the network operated by BiMoCom, which is rumoured to be controlled by Russian businessmen Vladimir Androsik and Dmitry Ivanter, who are also linked to Russian cellco Megafon. Megacom launched services in April 2006 and has proved popular amongst Kyrgyz with tariffs aimed at the man in the street.

   

 

 

Ownership wrangles continue at Bitel

  • January 22nd, 2007
  • 1:44 pm

Telegeography writes…The long-running saga of who owns Kyrgyz cellco Bitel has flared up again, with the announcement that Russian mobile operator MTS is to be taken to court in an attempt to force the latter to buy a 49% stake in the former. Nomihold, part of neighbouring Kazakhstan’s Alliance Capital, wants to execute a put option under which MTS would have to pay USD170 million for the remaining 49% stake in a holding company, Tarino Ltd, of which MTS bought 51% in December 2005 for USD150 million. Tarino had legal and operational control over Bitel at the time. The deal was disputed in the courts by fellow shareholder Rezervspetsmet, a company with links with Russia’s Altimo, and Rezervspetsmet was awarded control of the cellco. In July 2006 Bitel sold its network to Sky Mobile, a non-operational wireless licensee purchased by Altimo from Sky’s then parent company, Kazakh cellco Katel. Bitel claimed the sale was motivated by a threat by the local regulator to invalidate its licence for rule violations. The purchase by Altimo was seen by some as an attempt to stymie MTS’s claim on the Kyrgyz cellco. From then Sky Mobile took over the running of the Bitel network, with the brand name Bitel being retained by its new owners. Almost immediately the CEO of Russia’s second largest cellco, Vimpelcom (in which Altimo owns a 32.9% stake), announced his company may wish to purchase Sky from Altimo. MTS is currently appealing the December 2005 court ruling giving Rezervspetsmet control of Bitel, and is insisting that the terms of the put option that Alliance Capital is trying to force are changed.

 

 

Russian retailer Euroset opens 5,000th outlet

  • January 12th, 2007
  • 3:58 pm

 Russia’s largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has opened its 5,000th outlet, the company said in a press release Friday.

The milestone was reached Friday when the chain opened a new outlet in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, the company said.

As of October 1, 2006, Euroset operated in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova. The company’s sales in January-September amounted to US$3.1 billion.