Russia’s second largest mobile operator MegaFon would consider acquiring Tele2 Russia assets to help it expand, according to board director Ivan Streshinskiy.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Streshinskiy ruled out a full-scale merger between the two…
Russia’s second largest mobile operator MegaFon would consider acquiring Tele2 Russia assets to help it expand, according to board director Ivan Streshinskiy.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Streshinskiy ruled out a full-scale merger between the two operators, but said MegaFon would look at assets belonging to Tele2 Russia – part of the Swedish Tele2 group – if offered.
In Streshinskiy’s view, a merger would not benefit MegaFon shareholders as Tele2 positions itself as a “discounter”, which could hurt MegaFon’s competitive advantage. He did not specify which Tele2 assets the company would be interested in acquiring.
Streshinsky said MegaFon, which recently floated in London and Moscow in an US$1.7bn partial IPO, could enter into a deal with other operators to boost value for shareholders, but did not elaborate.
Tele2 has declined to comment.
According to recent Russian media reports, Tele2, which missed out on a licence in Russia’s LTE spectrum auction in July, is looking to either sell its Russian business or form a partnership with another local operator.
Late last month, newspaper Vedomosti reported that Tele2 has been in talks with Rostelecom for more than six months about creating a new joint venture, however both parties have declined to comment on the matter.
Rostelecom executives also refused to comment on a potential deal with Tele2 during a later conference call on the company’s Q3 results, however they said they are open to opportunities in the local mobile and broadband markets.
MTS is Russia’s largest nationwide mobile operator followed by MegaFon and VimpelCom respectively. Rostelecom and Tele2 cover smaller areas. Tele2 was the only one of the five not to win a licence at the July LTE auction.
