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Alfa Group Offers Asset Swap to Vodafone
Russia’s Alfa Group intends to swap assets for the stocks of Britain’s Vodafone, The Times reported yesterday. The deal amount is estimated at $29 billion. Alfa may succeed in this undertaking, Russia’s analysts speculate. They say it is aggressively looking for some telecom partner abroad in an effort to reduce political risks.
The telecom division of Alfa Group, Altimo, has offered the asset swap to Vodafone, The Times reported. The deal amount could be around £15 billion ($29 billion).
Altimo does hold consulting talks with a raft of potential partners abroad, Altimo Vice President Kirill Babaev confirmed. “Since emergence, one of strategic targets of Altimo has been establishing an alliance with an operator of Western Europe,” the official said.
It is not for the first time that the market learnt about Altimo’s negotiations with foreign firms. Altimo’s Senior Vice President Roger de Bazelaire said October 25 that his company was holding consultations about creating an alliance with France Telecom SA and Spanish Telefonica. Telecom Austria was named among potential partners of Altimo past summer.
Altimo owns 35.8 percent of common stocks of VimpelCom, 25.1 percent in MegaFon, 43.5 percent in Ukrainian Kievstar, 13.2 percent in Turkish Turkcell, around 30 percent in the U.S.-incorporated Golden Telecom and 100-percent in Kyrgyz Sky Mobile. Altimo’s capitalization is estimated at around $12 billion.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 03, 2006
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