Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov’s Systems Capital Management (SCM) has completed its acquisition of a 92.79% indirect stake in Ukrtelecom for an estimated US$1.3bn.
SCM has bought 100% of holding company UA Telecominvest, which in turn owns…
Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov’s Systems Capital Management (SCM) has completed its acquisition of a 92.79% indirect stake in Ukrtelecom for an estimated US$1.3bn.
SCM has bought 100% of holding company UA Telecominvest, which in turn owns 92.79% of Ukrtelecom, from Austria-based private equity firm Epic, the Ukrainian telco said in a statement.
SCM Advisers UK acted as financial adviser to SCM.
SCM agreed to buy the 92.79% stake in June and the Ukrainian antitrust authority cleared the deal in mid-September.
The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed, but the 92.79% stake was valued at US$1.3bn when Epic acquired it from the Ukrainian state in 2011 and analysts have estimated the value remains the same.
SCM, which manages Ukraine’s largest financial and industrial group, already has investments in two other local telcos: a 100% stake in fixed-line operator Vega and a minority stake in number three mobile operator Astelit, which operates under the brand name Life. Turkcell is Astelit’s majority shareholder.
In its own statement announcing the completion of the deal, Epic managing partner Peter Goldscheider said the sale to a telecoms group was “a logical step in the interest of Ukrtelecom”.
Epic described the financial outcome of the deal as “satisfactory”.
The PE firm received advice on the deal from group companies EAL and EMC and M&A advisory arm EFC.
Founded in 1993, Ukrtelecom claims to have an approximate 71% share of the local fixed-line telephony market and 83% of the long-distance and international telephony markets.
Ukraine’s two largest mobile operators are Kyivstar, co-owned by Norway’s Telenor and Russia’s Alfa Group, and the local unit of Russian telco MTS.
