Ivan Tavrin, business partner of Alisher Usmanov, will leave the post of head of the mobile operator MegaFon by the end of April, Vedomosti reported and RBC sources confirmed

Ivan Tavrin (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina / RBC)

Ivan Tavrin is leaving the post of CEO of the MegaFon operator, Vedomosti newspaper reported on April 21 , citing two sources closely familiar with the top manager. This information was confirmed to RBC by an interlocutor close to USM Holdings (controls more than 56% of MegaFon shares) and an acquaintance of Tavrin.

A representative of MegaFon's press service told RBC that the company "does not comment on rumors." A USM spokesman declined to comment. RBC was unable to contact Tavrin at the time of publication of the material.

An RBC source close to USM previously said that he had heard about Tavrin’s impending resignation. He clarified that the decision must be agreed upon by the board of directors of MegaFon and personally by the main shareholder of USM, Alisher Usmanov.

The issue of changing the general director, in particular, the appointment of a new manager, should be resolved at the general meeting of MegaFon shareholders. This meeting must be convened by the company’s board of directors, which has more than 10% of the shares, a representative of the operator previously explained. The next meeting of MegaFon's board of directors will take place on April 27.

Ivan Tavrin is Usmanov’s long-time business partner in the television business. He headed MegaFon in April 2012, replacing Sergei Soldatenkov, the current chairman of the operator’s board of directors. RBC's source in one of the USM companies calls Soldatenkov the most likely successor to Tavrin as CEO.

Tavrin owns 50% of UTV Holding (entertainment channel Yu, Disney channel, Muz-TV) and 3% of USM Holdings (in addition to the share in MegaFon, it controls Metalloinvest, Mail.Ru Group and other assets of Usmanov and its partners). Forbes magazine in 2016 estimated his fortune at $400 million.

Vedomosti already reported on Tavrin’s possible resignation from the post of CEO of MegaFon in February 2016, but then the newspaper’s sources agreed that the personnel issue was off the agenda.

MegaFon is the second largest mobile operator in Russia; according to AC&M-Consulting, the company occupies 30% of the country's mobile communications market. The number of operator subscribers in 2015 increased by 6.4% compared to 2014, to 76.8 million (the number of mobile subscribers - by 7.2%, to 74.8 million). The company's net profit in Russia over the same period increased by 9.1%, to 42.2 billion rubles, revenue decreased by 0.8%, to 308.4 billion rubles.

With the participation of Alena Sukharevskaya

Ivan Tavrin will resign as CEO of MegaFon