Sweden's Tele2 Buys 94% of Russia's Lipetsk Mobile from MCT

MOSCOW, Nov 10 (Prime-Tass) -- Swedish telecommunications company Tele2 AB has purchased a 94% stake in Russia's Lipetsk Mobile from U.S.' MCT Corp., MCT said in a statement Thursday.

The price of the deal was not disclosed.

Lipetsk Mobile, based in the Lipetsk Region, currently operates mobile services under the AMPS/DAMPS standard and has deployed a limited GSM test network, Tele2 said in a press release.

"The acquisition of Lipetsk Mobile with its GSM license is another step in expanding Tele2 in Russia, following our successful GSM mobile launches in twelve regions. With the Lipetsk license Tele2's licenses in Russia now cover a population of 34.5 million," Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, CEO of Tele2, was quoted as saying in the press release.

The Lipetsk Region's population stands at 1.24 million. Mobile penetration in the region is about 50%.

Tele2 holds controlling stakes in 12 mobile operators based in St. Petersburg and the constituent republic of Udmurtia, as well as in the Belgorod, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Kursk, Leningrad, Omsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, and Smolensk regions.

The subscriber base of Tele2 stood at 2.370 million people as of October 31, Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M) said Wednesday.

Tele2 is an alternative telecommunication operator of Europe. Tele2 has services in 25 countries in the world. It has a total subscriber base of almost 30 million users. The company was established in 1993.

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Posted to the site on 10th November 2005