Russian cellco MegaFon completes Synterra buyout
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In a move to speed up expansion of broadband business, the USD710 million buyout of wireless broadband operator Synterra has been completed by Russian cellco MegaFon.
Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) gave clearance to MegaFon at the end of July 2009 to buy 100% of Synterra’s shares. On February 25, 2010, cellco’s board met to approve the acquisition of the telco. According to Sergei Soldatenkov, MegaFon’s director general, Synterra is very important for the company for its backbone network and corporate clients.
Synterra operates the second largest backbone network in Russia and also owns a controlling stake in a number of wireline operators, such as St Petersburg-based PeterStar.
Russian mobile operators face investigation on roaming charges
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MTS, Vimpelcom and Megafon have been suspected of inflating tariffs by Russian antimonopoly watchdog FAS. An investigation has been launched by FAS into the high mobile roaming prices charged by the operators.
The roaming tariffs of the big three exceeded the level set by the European Commission by three to six times while the international calls tariffs applied by the operator is more than double.
The competition regulator has also found that the prices are well above those charged by smaller operators such as Tele2
Telenor & Alfa shareholders agree on Vimpelcom-Kyivstar JV
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telenor and the Alfa Group’s shareholders have been offered by the firm to consolidate their Ukraine and Russian mobile operations, four months after ending their bitter dispute over Vimpelcom.
Approval of the minority shareholders has been seeked by the companies on the long-delayed merger between Russian-based Vimpelcom and Ukraine operator Kyivstar.
The proposed merger was finally cleared by the Russian regulators last week which would create a $23 billion (€16.81 billion) company with around 88 million subscribers, and annual revenues of $12.6 billion. Through this deal, Russia’s third-largest carrier Megafon will be merged with Turkish carrier Turkcell in a 50:50 JV.
However, concerns are raised that the deal would leave Alfa in too dominant a position.
Telecom investments to be reduced by Alfa Group in Russia
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alfa Group may have to sell off some of its telecoms assets as desired by Russia’s Competition Regulator, to reduce its dominance in the home market. 25% of Megafon and 44% of VimpelCom is owned by Alfa Group.
The two companies have planned to settle their long-standing shareholder disputes with overseas investors. However, their decision has been criticized as the merged entities have to be registered outside Russia.
Megafon and Sweden’s TeliaSonera agreement to merge their shareholdings in Turkcell into a single holding company has been opposed by the Russian government who would prefer to create a larger Russian telecoms operator spanning both landline and mobile services.
VimpelCom, Megafon deals opposed by Russian regulator
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alfa Group’s efforts to combine two of Russia’s biggest mobile operators VimpelCom and Megafon with peers in Ukraine and Turkey have been blocked by Russia’s competition watchdog, Igor Artemev.
According to the head of Russia’s Federal Anti-monopoly Service, the deals simultaneously would be undesirable and even unacceptable. Most of the shares of VimpelCom and Ukraine’s Kyivstar are owned by Alfa and Norwegian co-investor Telenor. Plans to combine the two companies were announced last September.
Alfa along with its Nordic partner TeliaSonera joined the forces several week later to try and merge Russia’s third-largest mobile firm Megafon with Turkey’s largest mobile company Turkcell.
Megafon targeted by Russian state telco, Svyazinvest
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The state telecoms holding company Svyazinvest has shown its interest in buying mobile operator Megafon. Talks with Alisher Usmanov, owner of a 31.1 percent stake in Megafon are underway. The state is also interested in the blocking stake held by Alfa, part of Russian group Altimo.
Reorganization of Svyazinvest was approved by a government commission in May 2009. Since then, the purchase of a mobile operator to strengthen its operations is on the cards. Even AF Telecom Holding, managing Usmanov’s stake in Megafon, has expressed interest in cooperating with Svyazinvest. 31.1 percent stake in Megafon has been offered by the company in a joint venture created by Svyazinvest.
According to Russian minister of communications, Igor Shchegolev, the government would need to buy shares from Megafon’s other major shareholders, Altimo or TeliaSonera, but neither is willing to lower their stakes in Megafon. The Altimo and TeliaSonera deal needs approval by the Government Commission on Foreign Investments headed by the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
MegaFon reveals 3G suppliers (Russia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Russian mobile operator MegaFon, announced Finland-based equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) as the winner of its tender for the right to supply and construct 3G networks for MegaFon. NSN is said to supply at least 60% of 3G node-B base stations for the operator’s upcoming network expansion.
Five firms, NSN, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and ZTE, would collaborate on the company’s 3G deployment and upgrades until 2010 end. Moreover, Huawei and NSN will provide MegaFon’s staff with full technical support for the supplied equipment. The cellco says it will decide the territory of the deployments within Russia and there will be no exclusive rights granted to vendors.
Russia’s antitrust service acts vs. 3 biggest mobile operators
MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) – Mobile TeleSystems [RTS: MTSS], VimpelCom [NYSE: VIP] and MegaFon [RTS: MEGF] are facing action from
Russia’s Anti-Monopoly Service. The service said Thursday it was moving against the country’s three biggest mobile operators in the wake of a check into new tariffs used by them for mutual settlements, below the rates set for other mobile operators. It said the “big three” were using a rate of 0.95 rubles ($0.0351) per connection, whereas other operators had to pay 1.1 rubles ($0.037) for the same service, or 16% more, which put them at a disadvantage. It said regional operators and operators entering the mobile services market were in an unequal position compared with the established federal operators, which breached anti-monopoly laws.
The case will be heard on September 28.
Source- http://en.rian.ru
