MegaFon in Talks on Buying Uzbekistan's Coscom
MOSCOW, Sep 7 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon is holding negotiations to buy an 85% stake in Uzbekistan's third largest mobile operator Coscom from the US' MCT Corp., sources close to MegaFon said, Kommersant business daily reported Thursday.
MegaFon's spokespeople confirmed the company's interest in Coscom, but would not go into details of a possible deal, the daily reported.
The remaining 15% stake in Coscom is held by the company's management and other individuals. Analysts surveyed by the daily estimated 100% in the company to be worth between U.S. $180 million to $200 million.
MegaFon currently has only one subsidiary outside Russia, Tajikistan's TT Mobile, created in 2001. MegaFon's key Russian rivals, MTS and VimpelCom, have been aggressively buying mobile operators in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) over the last four years.
In Uzbekistan, MTS controls the country's largest mobile operator, Uzdunrobita, while VimpelCom controls the second largest operator, Unitel.
Uzdunrobita controls about 55% of the local market, which has over 1.75 million users, according to Sotovik research agency.
Coscom's subscriber base amounts to over 300,000 users, Kommersant reported.
MegaFon's total subscriber base stood at 26.787 million users as of July 31, according to Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M).
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Posted to the site on 7th September 2006