MTS gets fixed in Moscow, expands to the south

The board of directors of MTS has approved the acquisition of 100% of Sistema Inventure, which owns 29% of voting shares in Moscow City Telephone Network the company statement reads.

The board of directors of MTS has approved the acquisition of 100% of Sistema Inventure, which owns 29% of voting shares in Moscow City Telephone Network, the company statement reads. The deal will see an outlay of 10.56 billion roubles by MTS subsidiaries for 100% Sistema Inventure from principal shareholder AFK Sistema excluding 10.44 billion roubles debt of Sistema Inventure to AFK Sistema.The deal is expected to be finalized before the end of 2011 after the approval by AFK Sistema board of directors providing MTS with 99.1% ownership of common and 69.7% of preferred shares in MGTS, or the equivalent of 94.1% of the company's charter capital. The Federal Anti-Monopoly has approved the acquisition of 100% stake in Sistema Inventure after MTS request submission in August. Andrei Dubovskov president said the integration of two telecom businesses will increase business efficiency “Synergies from merging MGTS into MTS will top 14 billion roubles over five to six years. The company plans to integrate MGTS over a period of two to three years. MGTS will become an integral part of MTS, including its mobile business,”Apart from M&A deals, MTS has signed an agreement with the government of the Krasnodar region under which the company will invest 10 billion roubles over the next 2 years in telecom infrastructure development in the regionThe investment agreement has been signed during the International Investment forum in Sochi with Sergei Laskavi, Head of MTS-South said that MTS will go beyond its recent records of network expansion in the region“The traffic has tripled since the beginning of the year and we are well prepared to continue the growth of our network over the next 3 years”