Russia’s Megafon has agreed to pay US$1.33bn for a 50% stake in Euroset, the largest mobile phone retailer in the country.
Vimpelcom owns the other half of Euroset.
The Megafon board said in a statement that it would pay US$590m to acquire a 25%…
Russia’s Megafon has agreed to pay US$1.33bn for a 50% stake in Euroset, the largest mobile phone retailer in the country.
Vimpelcom owns the other half of Euroset.
The Megafon board said in a statement that it would pay US$590m to acquire a 25% stake from Russian investor Alexander Mamut.
Garsdale Services – owned by Megafon’s majority shareholder Alisher Usmanov – will also purchase 25%, which will be sold to the telco within three years.
The board said the total transaction value could be up to US$1.33bn.
Megafon plans to list a stake on the LSE before the end of the year.
Euroset postponed an IPO in May 2011 because of unfavourable market conditions and Vimplecom passed on an option to up its stake to almost 75% last December.
The retailer claims a 30% market share of the national retail mobile handset sector. The company has more than 4,000 outlets in Russia, 275 outlets in Ukraine and around 80 in Belarus.
