Rostelecom plans MVNO on MegaFon network (Russia)
Russian national operator, Rostelecom has reportedly entered into negotiations with cellco MegaFon to use its network for the potential launch of a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).
According to reports, Rostelecom approached all of the so-called ‘Big Three’ operators (also comprising Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and VimpelCom) for the mooted MVNO, but the deal with MegaFon is the one that has been tipped to succeed.
Mobile TeleSystems Announces Financial Results for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2010
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, today announces its unaudited US GAAP financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2010.
Key Financial Highlights of Q3 2010
- Consolidated revenues up 10.8% y-o-y to $2,911 million
- Consolidated OIBDA up 8.2% y-o-y to $1,309 million with a
45.0% OIBDA margin
- Consolidated net income attributable to the Group of $475
million
- Free cash-flowincreased in Q3 2010 and reached $2.4
billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2010
Key Corporate and Industry Highlights
- Acquisition of a 95% stake in Metro-Telecom for RUB 339.35
million ($11.01 million)
- Acquisition of Multiregion, one of the leading groups of
broadband and cable TV providers in Russia, for $123.5 million
- Decrease in the interest rates on Gazprombank’s RUB 6.46
billion facility and on Sberbank’s RUB 53 billion facilities
- Completion of a series of transactions involving the sale by
the Comstar group of companies to Rostelecom of the 25%+1 share in the
charter capital of Svyazinvest for RUB 26 billion
- Successful completion of voluntary tender offer to the
Comstar shareholders resulting in the acquisition of 37,614,087
ordinary Comstar shares, or approximately 9.0% of Comstar’s issued
share capital
- LTE launch in Uzbekistan – first commercial network in the CIS
- Outlook upgrade of the S&P credit rating from Stable to
Positive
- Affirmation of the Fitch credit rating at BB+/Outlook Stable
- Voluntarily repayment of the second tranche of the
syndicated loan in the amount of $161.5 million; the loan was
originally signed in April 2006 and carried a 5-year maturity
- Redemption of the $400 million Eurobond in October 2010
- Placement of the series 07 and series 08 ruble-denominated
bonds totaling RUB 25 billion
- Transfer of MTS ordinary share to the “A1″ listing on the
Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX)
- Completion of 3G deployment throughout markets of operation
with 3G launch in Turkmenistan
- Signing of a non-binding indicative offer to acquire for RUB
11.59 billion ($379.01 million) Sistema-Telecom, whose primary
assets include the distinctive ‘egg’ trademarks used by MTS and its
subsidiaries
Commentary
Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of MTS, commented, “For the period, we delivered strong sequential and annual growth in all of our markets of operation. During the quarter we improved Group’s revenue 10.8%% year over year to $2.9 billion dollars. We attribute this growth to the positive seasonal dynamics, subscriber additions and a general increase in usage in our core markets.”
Alexey Kornya, MTS Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said, “We have been very successful in our efforts aimed at optimizing our debt portfolio. We reached an agreement to lower interest rates on our Sberbank facilities in the total amount of 53 billion rubles. In line with our preference for ruble denominated debt, we voluntarily repaid the second – and last – tranche of our outstanding syndicated loan in the amount of $161.5 million; the loan was originally signed in April 2006 and carried a 5-year maturity. At the end of the period, non-ruble debt accounted for roughly 37% of our debt portfolio, but this should decrease by the end of the year.”
Mr. Kornya added, “In October we completed the redemption of a $400 million Eurobond. Just recently, we tapped local debt markets placing series-07 and series-08 ruble-denominated bonds – a 5-year 15 billion RUB issue with a coupon of 8.15% and a 7-year 10 billion RUB issue with a coupon of 8.7%. This makes us the first Russian corporate to solicit 7-year money from the market, which is a strong statement on our financial position given the volatility we are now seeing in global capital markets.”
Continued Mr. Shamolin, “As you are aware, we are moving forward with the acquisition of Comstar that creates the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS. As a part of the process, we launched a voluntary tender offer (VTO) to Comstar shareholders for up to 9.0% of Comstar’s issued share capital. The VTO was successful, which allowed us to increase our ownership stake in Comstar to 70.97% of Comstar’s issued share capital (or 73.33% excluding treasury shares). The merger process is expected to be completed by mid-April 2011 subject to the shareholders’ approval of the transaction and certain regulatory steps. We will seek the approval from the shareholders of both MTS and Comstar at Extraordinary General Meetings on December 23, 2010.”
He continued, “Earlier this week we signed a non-binding indicative offer to acquire 100% of Sistema Telecom LLC. As you may recall, in 2006 Sistema introduced the umbrella brand to link its telecommunications assets in the eyes of their customers. In the years since, however, the market has undergone significant changes that saw ownership of many of these key assets shift to MTS. Today, we are truly operating under a unified brand to all of our customers and are continuously extending our brand to different services. Given the prospects we see in our market, we feel it is only logical to acquire full control of our logos and trademarks to ensure that all shareholders benefit equally in the brand’s further development as we continue to implement our “3i” strategy.”
This press release provides a summary of some of the key financial and operating indicators for the period ended September 30, 2010. For full disclosure materials, please visit http://www.mtsgsm.com/resources/reports/.
Learn more about MTS. Visit the official blog of the Investor Relations Department at http://www.mtsgsm.com/blog/
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS”) is the leading telecommunications group in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, offering mobile and fixed voice, broadband, pay TV as well as content and entertainment services in one of the world’s fastest growing regions. Including its subsidiaries, the Group services over 105.2 million mobile subscribers in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus, a region that boasts a total population of more than 230 million. Since June 2000, MTS’ Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol MBT). Additional information about the MTS Group can be found at http://www.mtsgsm.com.
Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of MTS, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “will,” “could,” “may” or “might,” and the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not undertake or intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. We refer you to the documents MTS files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Company’s most recent Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned “Risk Factors” that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the severity and duration of current economic and financial conditions, including volatility in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets; the impact of Russian, U.S. and other foreign government programs to restore liquidity and stimulate national and global economies, our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so, strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions and our success in integrating acquired businesses, including Comstar-UTS, potential fluctuations in quarterly results, our competitive environment, dependence on new service development and tariff structures, rapid technological and market change, acquisition strategy, risks associated with telecommunications infrastructure, governmental regulation of the telecommunications industries and other risks associated with operating in Russia and the CIS, volatility of stock price, financial risk management and future growth subject to risks.
MTS offers Sistema to sell Sistema Telecom
Sistema has received an offer from Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) to sell 100 percent of shares of Sistema Telecom to the mobile operator for RUB 13.389bn (approx. USD 431m), the telecommunication corporation’s press office reported today.
The amount of the potential deal includes the company’s share capital of RUB 11.588bn (approx. USD 373m) and net debt of nearly RUB 1.801bn (approx. USD 59m). MTS also indicated that Sistema Telecom’s debt included its liabilities to mobile operator’s subsidiaries in the amount of RUB 1.35bn (approx. USD 44.04m).
If the deal does in fact go through, on the date of the deal’s completion, Sistema Telecom will become the owner of the rights to trademarks, including those of MTS, Comstar-UTS and MGTS (Moscow City Telephone Network), a 45-percent stake in TS Retail and promissory notes worth RUB 2bn (approx. USD 64.4m) issued by MTS.
According to Sistema, the deal is expected to be closed by the end of the year, provided that it receives all the necessary corporate and anti-trust regulator’s approvals.
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MegaFon buys fibre-optic operator Metrocom (Russia)
Russian mobile operator MegaFon has agreed to acquire 100% stake of Metrocom, a St Petersburg-based regional operator in a deal worth US$67 million.
MegaFon will acquire 55% stake of Metrocom from the government and 45% stake from Russian company MCT, which is owned by the son of St Petersburg governor Sergei Matvienk.
The stake in Metrocom was auctioned by the Russian state property fund; competitor telcos Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and Rostelecom ruled themselves out of the auction, citing that US$67 million is too expensive.
Metrocom owns a 1,500km fibre-optic network and is presently the sole operator in St Petersburg with metro cables in place. The company is employed in providing telephone services, Internet, data transmission, as well as rent a wide range of communication channels.
MegaFon completes USD745 million Synterra purchase (Russia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: USD745 million acquisition of long-distance operator Synterra has been completed by Russian cellco MegaFon following several months of negotiations with owner PromSvyazCapital.
The deal also follows the rumors of a counter bid from Rostelecom.
Both Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and Vimpelcom, MegaFon’s two larger cellular rivals own extensive long-distance infrastructure which they are in the process of expanding.
Russia’s MTS customer base rises 7.1% in 2009
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an increase of 7.1% year-on-year, the consolidated customer base of Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) group reached 97.81 million, up from 91.33 million. Even the flagship domestic operation of the company had 69.3 million customers at year-end, up nearly five million from a year earlier.
However, a decline in the customer base has been faced by MTS in its Moscow market from 14.9 million at end-2008, to 13.6 million a year later. While growth was recorded in all MTS markets, only one international market, MTS Ukraine saw its customer base falling from 18.12 million to 17.56 million year-on-year.
The cellco’s operations in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus ended 2009 with 7.07 million, 1.76 million, 2.07 million and 4.56 million customers respectively.
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
