June 17, 2013, 22:23 / Business

Megafon may acquire Scartel in the future

company The Megafon is considering the possibility of purchasing Scartel in order to expand its subscriber base due to the growing popularity of the mobile Internet, company CEO Ivan Tavrin said in an interview with Bloomberg . “Skartel is a very interesting asset,” Tavrin noted. “We do not rule out the possibility of an acquisition in the future, but obviously it depends on the terms [of the deal].”

In July 2012, the shareholders of Megafon and Scartel (Yota brand) completed the creation of the Garsdale Services holding: the largest shareholder of Megafon, Alisher Usmanov, received 82% of the merged company, and the former co-owners of Scartel - Telconet Capital of Sergei Adoniev and " Russian Technologies" - 18%.

“It is logical for Megafon to acquire Scartel, but it is still difficult to name a fair price for such a transaction,” notes Sberbank Investment Research analyst Anna Lepetukhina. Alisher Usmanov’s USM Holdings believes that Megafon’s purchase of Scartel “makes sense” and will lead to “interaction" in the development of the service sector using LTE, noted Ivan Streshinsky, CEO of USM Advisors Usmanov. USM acquired Scartel last year (the transaction amount was not disclosed) and hopes to sell it to Megafon at the same price to avoid conflict interests, Bloomberg quotes Streshinsky as saying.