Russia’s ministry of economic development is actively seeking advisers for the sale of the state’s stake in telco Rostelecom.
The ministry said in a statement it has started the selection process for legal organisers to privatise the company….
Russia’s ministry of economic development is actively seeking advisers for the sale of the state’s stake in telco Rostelecom.
The ministry said in a statement it has started the selection process for legal organisers to privatise the company. Moscow-based Rostelecom was one of multiple state-owned assets tabled for privatisation between 2014 and 2016 in a July government decree.
The state holds 51.12% of the telco following its recently-completed reorganisation, which saw it merge with government-owned telecoms holding Svyazinvest and numerous subsidiaries.
Meanwhile, Rostelecom is working to combine its mobile assets in a joint venture with Tele2 Russia – a move which should enable them to better compete with the nation’s big three operators.
Potential share sale of up to US$1.4bn
Separately, local newspaper Kommersant reported that Rostelecom may sell up to Rbs46bn (US$1.4bn) of shares – about 15% of its stock capital – in a secondary public offering next year aimed at cutting debt.
A Rostelecom spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
CEO Sergey Kalugin said in May that the company was looking at selling more than US$500m of treasury stock to help cut debt. The telco has bought back many of its own shares recently as part of a restructuring. In November, for instance, it bought out its largest minority shareholder in a deal worth Rbs25.2bn (US$775m).
Rostelecom reported consolidated revenues of Rbs232.3bn (US$7.1bn) for the first nine months of 2013, up 2% year-on-year. OIBDA stood at Rbs87.1bn (US$2.66bn) with an OIBDA margin of 37.5%, while net debt totalled Rbs208.3bn (US$6.37bn) with a net debt/OIBDA ratio of 1.9x.
