Ukraine’s Systems Capital Management (SCM) Group has agreed to acquire a 92.79% stake in incumbent Ukrtelecom from Austria-based investment firm Epic.
SCM’s 100% owner is Ukrainian billionaire businessman Rinat Akhmetov, said to be an ally of…
Ukraine’s Systems Capital Management (SCM) Group has agreed to acquire a 92.79% stake in incumbent Ukrtelecom from Austria-based investment firm Epic.
SCM’s 100% owner is Ukrainian billionaire businessman Rinat Akhmetov, said to be an ally of president Viktor Yanukovich.
The company will acquire 100% of the shares of UA Telecominvest, which holds an indirect 92.79% stake in Ukrtelecom via wholly-owned subsidiary ESU.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but when Epic acquired its controlling stake in Uktrelecom in May 2011 from the state, it had been valued at Hr10.575 (US$1.3bn).
SCM’s adviser for the deal was UK affiliate SCM Advisers, while EPIC received advice from group companies EAL and EMC and M&A advisory arm EFC.
SCM, which manages Ukraine’s largest financial and industrial group and is also active in other sectors, already has investments in two other local telcos: a 100% stake fixed-line operator Vega and a minority stake in number three mobile operator Astelit, which operates under the brand name Life.
The deal is subject to antitrust and other approvals.
SCM Advisers managing director Ilya Arkhipov described the deal as a “promising” telecoms investment project.
“SCM is happy to have this opportunity to use the experience we have accumulated as well as the synergy with other telecom businesses of the group to offer new products and services to the existing customers, to attract new clients and build a more advanced telecommunications infrastructure in Ukraine”.
Founded in 1993, Ukrtelecom claims to have an approximate 71% share of the local telephony market and 83% of the long-distance and international telephony markets. It is also the sole Ukrainian operator to provide 3G UMTS services.
