Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov may buy 25.1 % stake in MegaFon for $5 bn
03 Apr 2012
Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov, a stakeholder in English football club Arsenal, may buy a 25.1-per cent stake in MegaFon, Russia's second-biggest wireless operator, for about $5 billion, local daily RBC yesterday reported.
Usmanov, who already holds 31.13 per cent of MegaFon through his AF Telecom holding company, will buy the stake from Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman.
Fridman owns his stake through his Alfa Group, which also holds a 25 per cent stake in Russia's third-biggest mobile phone operator Vimpelcom.
Earlier known as North-West GSM, Moscow-based MegaFon is the second largest mobile operator in Russia after MTS.
The company changed its name in 2002 from North-West GSM to MegaFon after it acquired several regional companies, to become the first mobile operator to offer GSM services across entire Russia.
It has more than 62 million active subscriber accounts, and subsidiaries in Tajikistan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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