TeliaSonera's (OMX: TLSN )nearly 44% interest in Russia's second largest mobile phone operator MegaFonis a very material asset worth several billion. Yesterday the company confirmed recent market speculation, that there are ongoing negotiations pertaining to the future of the company. The discussions circulate around the ownership structure and governance.
In 2009 TeliaSonera and Altimo, which owns around a quarter of the shares, agreed on a deal to merge MegaFon and leading Turkish operator Turkcell in a separate listed company. Russia’s anti-trust commission rejected the deal, in part since the third owner AF Telecom did not comply and also since the ownership situation in Turkcell is hardly clear.
Lately it has been rumoured that AF Telecom and its billionaire owner Alisher Usmanov is interested in buying out Altimo in some kind of an asset swap. After that a separate listing of the company might be more plausible. Three quarters of AF Telecom’s current 31.3% ownership is held indirectly through its 73.9% interest in TelecomInvest. Just less than 20% (8.2%) of TeliaSonera’s stake in MegaFon is owned indirectly via its 26.1% minority stake in TelecomInvest.
In the event of a resolution, the previous agreements with Altimo might well come into play as well. TeliaSonera said that the MegaFon talks are ongoing it will notify the stock exchange, if and when a deal is reached.
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