Vimpelcom delays Millicom Laos acquisition
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The agreement to acquire 74.1 percent stake in Millicom Lao has yet not been completed by Vimpelcom. The delay is despite the fact that all the conditions of the agreement have been met.
Acquisition of a 78 percent stake in Millicom’s mobile operator in Laos in September 2009 was announced by Vimpelcom. Laos’s government owns the remaining 22 percent of Millicom Lao.
According to Millicom, it is reserving its rights under the terms of the agreement, including the right to seek compensation for any loss of value resulting from VimpelCom’s decision not to complete the transaction.
It has also been confirmed by Millicom that it will proceed with the sale of its Laos unit.
Telenor’s $1.7b Russian lawsuit again delayed
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The announcement for the delay of the court battle over a US$1.73 billion lawsuit in Russia for the fourth time has been made by Telenor. Continuous appeal has been filed by the telco following a court case won by a mystery company known as Farimex Products, which is a BVI shell company claiming to hold a 0.002 per cent stake in VimpelCom.
It was been claimed by British Virgin Islands-based Farimex in the original case that VimpelCom suffered financial harm allegedly caused by Telenor due to delays in VimpelCom’s acquisition of loss-making Ukrainian mobile operation, Ukrainian Radio Systems (URS). It was brought to the court attention by Farimex in the beginning of the latest hearing that four of the Alfa entities originally named as defendants in the case – CT Mobile, Avenue, Janow and Santel had been liquidated.
April 16, 2010 has been set as the new hearing date by the court as it requires some time to review the documents presented by Farimex. None of the four Alfa entities were appealing the Omsk court’s ruling of March 2, 2009. Appeal of Telenor made against Omsk court’s ruling was initially adjourned until June 10, 2009 and had been scheduled to take place on May 26, 2009 and was again delayed till September 30, 2009.
Court granted Farimex’s motion requesting that the hearing in the case be delayed until a related Farimex case in New York had been heard, on September 30, 2009 and it was later dismissed without prejudice on October 20, 2009.
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
Mobile operators join force on global apps platform
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An open international applications platform has been launched by a joint force of the world’s largest mobile operators. This marks the largest unified move to date by the operator community into the mobile apps space.
A combination of 24 of the world’s largest mobile carriers, the so called ‘Wholesale Applications Community’ includes America Movil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom Austria, MTN Group, NTT Docomo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, VimpelCom and WIND.
Vodafone, China Mobile, SoftBank and Verizon Wireless in the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) mobile apps initiative are also included in the group. The move has been backed by GSMA, an industry association. The aim of the alliance is to create a wholesale platform for mobile apps providing a single point-of-entry for developers. Operators are also eyeing the revenue-generating potential of getting into the apps business.
The new operator-led initiative has also got the support from the handset vendors including LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.
Vimpelcom exceeds 2 mln internet subscribers
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The internet subscriber base of Russian operator Vimpelcom exceeded 2 million at the end of 2009. 1.073 million Has been the fixed Beeline internet subscribers and the mobile internet subscriber base reached 1.038 million at the end of 2009.
RUB 1.7 billion in Q3 2009 has been the total revenue from broadband services comprising RUB 626 million from mobile broadband and RUB 1.1 billion from fixed broadband.
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.
Vimpelcom-Kyivstar merger approved by Russian regulator
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vimpelcom and Ukrainian operator Kyivstar merger has been approved by Commission on Foreign Investments. The announcement has been made by head of Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.
As per the deal, Alfa Group and Norwegian group Telenor will pool their holdings in the two firms to establish a new US-listed, Netherlands-based operator, Vimpelcom Ltd.
Integrated mobile services to consumers in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries, as well as Georgia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos will be provided by the united company. Vimpelcom Ltd will seek to expand its operations in Europe, Asia and Africa after its establishment.
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.
Bharti Airtel considering bid for Millicom SL
Bharti Airtel CEO, Manoj Kohli told reporters in India that Airtel may bid for Millicom’s Sri Lankan operation. Bharti already operates in SL.
Wireless Federation had earlier reported that Millicom/Tigo Laos has been sold to Russia’s Vimpelcom.
Bharti is actively considering acquisitions in Africa and the world over after the talks with MTN collapsed.
Bharti group CEO Sunil Mittal has said that the company won’t engage in dialogue with MTN for a third time, after inconclusive talks twice.
Nasdaq-listed Millicom provides prepaid cellular telephony services to over 30 million customers in 16 emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Asked if Bharti Airtel was also interested in Kuwait’s Zain Telecom, Kohli said they will continue to explore international acquisitions. (Airtel-Zain, See Here)
