The State Property Committee of Belarus has received no application for the auction of a 51% stake in mobile operator MTS Belarus, Vedemosti reported according to Telecompaper.
The deadline to submit applications to take part in the 1 December auction…
The State Property Committee of Belarus has received no application for the auction of a 51% stake in mobile operator MTS Belarus, Vedemosti reported according to Telecompaper.
The deadline to submit applications to take part in the 1 December auction were due on 15 November.
The authorities had set the minimum price at US$1bn for the 51% stake, which is currently held by state-owned fixed-line operator Beltelecom. The remaining 49% stake is owned by Russian telco MTS.
Last April, vice premier Anatoly Kalinin was reported saying that the Russian company had offered to buy the state’s 51% stake, but negotiations collapsed as parties failed to agree on the price.
The privatisation agency said in September that MTS Belarus’ network currently covers 99.7% of the population, has 44.3% market share by subscribers and 46% by revenue.
At the end of Q1 it had 4.75 million subscribers and posted US$119.2m revenues.
MTS Belarus competes with fellow GSM and 3G operators BeST and Telekom Austria-owned Velcom, as well as with CDMA operator BelCel.
