MTS President Andrei Dubovskov said on Tuesday, May 19, that the company does not yet plan to buy the Svyaznoy retailer, despite the fact that in 2014 it was negotiating its acquisition, Interfax reports .

“If we can continue to maintain the low level of churn that has been demonstrated over these years, with the same, or perhaps faster, pace of connections, then we are not interested in spending tens of billions on this expensive pleasure. We would rather use this money for CAPEX, remuneration of shareholders, and repayment of debts,” Dubovskov explained.

He added that if the volume of MTS connections “will be significantly lower than what we are demonstrating now, then everything depends on the price . ” “But so far we do not see any threats to our development,” the MTS president emphasized.

In 2014, MTS secured the consent of the FAS to purchase Svyaznoy, but the deal fell through after the arrest of the company’s main shareholder Vladimir Yevtushenkov in September .

At the end of 2014, the founder of Svyaznoy, Maxim Nogotkov, lost control over the retailer: first he transferred to the creditors - Onexim company of Mikhail Prokhorov and NPF Blagosostoyanie, which resold the rights of claim on the debt of Svyaznoy to Oleg Malis' Solvers company.

MTS is the main partner of Svyaznoy for the sale of subscription contracts. Malis previously promised that the retailer would not stop collaborating with the operator.

MTS changed its mind about buying Svyaznoy