Russian Megafon Company Takes Interests in Assets of K-Telecom Armenian
Cellular Operator
arminfo
2007-07-07 12:07:00
Russian Megafon Company has announced about the activation of its
network in the Republic of Altai. Thus, it has become the first mobile
operator in Russia to be present in all the subjects of the Russian
Federation. The major rivals of Megafon are VimpelCom (Beeline) and
MTS, which embrace 77 and 85 of 86 regions, respectively.
Now, when Megafon network covers the whole Russia, General Manager of
the company Sergey Soldatenkov declared that Megafon will search for a
niche in CIS. Earlier, the company took interest only in Tajikistan
(75pct stake in local operator T-Mobile), S. Soldatenkov said. Now, the
company is ready to acquire stakes of also other mobile companies.
First of all, Megafon is interested in the cellular
operators in Armenia (K-Telecom), Kyrgyz Republic (Megacom), and in
Uzbekistan (Coscom) for the low cellular penetration in these
countries. The Ukrainian cellular market was recognized not prospective
for over 100% cellular penetration. Moreover, Beeline and MTS are
already present in that market. Meafon has no intention to enter the
markets of Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Moldova as Fintur
Company operates there. Fintur belongs to TeliaSonera, which is the
main shareholder of Megafon. As regards Beeline, it serves cellular
subscribers in another 6 countries: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine. MTS is present in 4 countries: Belarus,
Uzbekistan, Turkmenia and the Ukraine. The companies’ profit from
activities in CIS is 25% of total (Beeline) and 14% of total (MTS).
In his turn, Artem Minayev, VimpelCom OJSC Senior Manager for
Development in Regions and in CIS, told Telnews.ru about the company’s
work in the countries which Megafon intends to enter. "We
carry out commercial operations in Armenia and Uzbekistan. At present,
Megafon is represented neither in Armenia nor in Uzbekistan. We
actively develop even without this operator. We develop our marketing
proposals in Uzbekistan and focus on modernization of equipment in
Armenia. We have entered Armenia recently and provide also fixed
telephony and wire-connected Internet service there. We do not work in
Kyrgyzstan. With the growing cellular penetration into Russia, CIS
market has become very attractive for investors." Except Ukraine, all
the countries are in the stage of heavy growth and some of them are at
the initial stage of development. We plan to increase VimpelCom’s
profits from CIS to 30% of the total.