Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has given the green light to a proposal to combine all the shares of wireless broadband operator Scartel and Alisher Usmanov’s controlling stake in mobile operator MegaFon in a single holding company.
The…
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has given the green light to a proposal to combine all the shares of wireless broadband operator Scartel and Alisher Usmanov’s controlling stake in mobile operator MegaFon in a single holding company.
The antitrust authority today (18 June) issued a statement saying it has approved a proposal submitted by MegaFon affiliate Garsdale Services Investment to acquire Scartel, which operates under the brand name Yota.
Earlier media reports said Alisher Usmanov, MegaFon’s new controlling shareholder, would own more than 80% of the new holding company which, in turn, would own Usmanov’s 50%-plus-one-share stake in MegaFon and all Scartel shares.
The regulator gave clearance to the deal under the condition that the operators allow MVNOs to access their 4G networks where technically possible, Russia’s Prime Business News Agency reported.
Today’s FAS announcement would have come as a surprise to many given earlier media reports that the authority wanted to wait until the LTE spectrum tender process has concluded before making a decision on the matter. The results of the tender, run by the communications ministry, are set to be announced on 12 July. As Russia’s second largest mobile operator, MegaFon is considered highly likely to win spectrum.
Scartel launched its own LTE network in May. Last year, the company announced it had signed an agreement with MegaFon, VimpelCom, MTS and Rostelecom allowing them to use the then-to-be-launched network to offer 4G services.
MegaFon and Scartel were not immediately available for comment.
