Golden Telecom to buy rest of Russia's Sovintel.
18 Mar 2002

MOSCOW, March 18 (Reuters) - Russian telecoms firm Golden Telecom said on Monday it had signed a deal to take full control of profitable joint venture Sovintel, buying out the 50 percent owned by partner Rostelekom . The transaction - for $56 million in cash and 15 percent of Golden's shares - is subject to approval by each of the company's boards of directors and Russian regulators. Rostelekom, Russia's national long-distance operator, would also get representation on the Golden board. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding on the deal late last year. Golden said it expected the deal to be closed in the second quarter of 2002. "The acquisition of Sovintel will enable our financial statements to more clearly reflect the true value of Golden Telecom to our shareholders," Alexander Vinogradov, President and CEO of Golden Telecom was quoted as saying in a statement. After the deal is closed Golden Telecom plans to merge Sovintel's activities with its subsidiary TeleRoss. "This combination will improve our cost structure due to the complementary nature of the Sovintel and TeleRoss...networks and will perfectly position us for long term growth as we expand nationally," Vinogradov added. (C) Reuters Limited 2002.

Golden Telecom Inc.

Altimo, a leading private equity group, operating on some of the world's most desirable and potentially lucrative mobile telecommunications markets, was created in 2005 from Alfa Telecom, which itself was established in 2004 to hold the telecoms investments of the Alfa Group Consortium (Golden Telecom, Inc., Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Kyivstar GSM, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Sky Mobile). Those assets are in Russia , the CIS and other promising emerging markets.

Golden Telecom Inc. is a leading independent  fixed-line communications operator in Russia. The company provides, via its own infrastructure, complex telecommunications and internet services in Russia and several CIS countries. Listed on US NASDAQ. In Q1 2008, VimpelCom acquired 100% of the oustanding share capital of Golden Telecom.

SEARCH