Director of Equity Financing, FINAM Investment Company, Moscow
Cover of the July 2007 issue of Russia's Standard business magazine
The July issue of the Russian magazine Standard included a very interesting supplement – the latest (as of July 10, 2007) arbor civilis of ownership in Russian telecommunications.
I happened to know a senior manager in this field, Leonid Konik, way back in the 1990s, when he started his project, ComNews. It is rather comforting to find out that he now runs a well-established and popular news project involved in telecommunications.
Anyway, the insert from Standard magazine shows who is who and what companies form the Russian telecommunications sector. I think that my readers may find useful the links to the websites that I am providing in the extended post.
First, it seems that there are at least eleven foreign telecommunications companies that own some telecom assets in Russia:
- Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) – has 19.9% equity in Metrosvayz Ltd
- GlobalStar L.P. (NASDAQ:GSAT) has a 49% stake in Russia's Global Tel satellite phone service
- Sumitomo Corp.(TYO:8053) – has 45% of Enforta B.V. that it jointly owns with the Moscow-based private equity firm Baring Vostok Capital Partners (20%)
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development owns 5% of Prestige-Internet (Enforta), a Russian Internet service provider; and also 20% of the New Telephone Company, which is based in Vladivostok. Korea Telecom Corp.(NYSE:KTC) owns the other 80% of this telecommunications firm operating in Russia's Far East.
- Tele2 AB (STO:TEL2 B) owns 100% of Tele2-Russia
- France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) – through Equant N.V. – owns 100% of the Russian Equant company
- Linx Telecommunications B.V. (based in the Netherlands) owns 100% of Svyaz VSD and 100% of Linx Telecommunications CIS
- Global computer chip manufacturer Intel reportedly has a 25.4% stake in the Alfa Group's telecommunications assets
- Telenor (OTC:TELNY) has 29.9% of Vimpelcom, which was one of the first Russian companies to trade on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:VIP)
- Telia Sonera AB (STO:TLSN) – owns 100% of Telia Sonera International Carrier Russia; 35.6% (indirectly) of MegaFon; and 26.1% of Telecominvest
According to the Standard magazine chart, four Russian telecommunications companies are publicly traded:
- Golden Telecom (NASDAQ:GLDN) – NASDAQ – 36.7% free float
- Vimpelcom (NYSE:VIP) – has a 24.4% free float
- Mobile Telesystems (NYSE:MBT) - has a 46.7% free float
- Comstar (LON:CMST) - has a 35% free float
I should add RosTelecom (NYSE:ROS) here too.
Now everyone who is interested can examine all the links to get some idea of who owns what in Russia’s rapidly growing telecom sector.
You can read the original post at Vladimir Kuznetsov's blog, Equity Financing in Russia. The views expressed in this post and on his blog are the personal opinions of Vladimir Kuznetsov, and are reproduced here solely for educational purposes. To read more Russia Blog posts about Russian capital markets, click on the finance section or type www.russiablog.org/finance in your web browser.
