Sources Say Altimo in Talks with TeliaSonera on Asset Swap

MOSCOW, Feb 14 (Prime-Tass) -- Altimo, the telecommunications arm of Russian industrial and financial holding Alfa Group, has been in talks for several months with Finnish-Swedish telecommunications operator TeliaSonera on a possible swap of assets, two sources close to the talks said, Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday.

One of the sources said that the two companies had been discussing Altimo swapping all or most of its telecommunications assets in exchange for a stake in TeliaSonera. The sides are already close to an agreement, the source said, the daily reported.

TeliaSonera's largest shareholder, the Swedish government with a 45.3% stake, plans wants to sell a stake in the company, but has decided neither on the size of the stake to be sold nor a timeline for the sale, a spokesperson with the government said, Vedomosti reported.

On Tuesday, TeliaSonera's President and CEO Anders Igel, following a presentation on the company's financial results, said that TeliaSonera planned either to get a controlling stake in Russia?s third largest mobile operator MegaFon and Turkey's largest mobile operator Turkcell, or sell its current non-controlling stakes, Vedomosti reported.

Altimo and TeliaSonera both have stakes in MegaFon and Turkcell. Altimo has a 25.1% stake in MegaFon and a 13.2% stake in Turkcell, while TeliaSonera controls directly and indirectly a 43.7% stake in MegaFon and 37.04% in Turkcell.

Among Altimo's other telecommunications assets are a 35.8% stake in Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom, 29% in U.S.-registered telecommunications operator Golden Telecom, 43.5% in Ukraine's largest mobile operator Kyivstar and a 100% stake in Kyrgyz mobile operator Sky Mobile.

Altimo is seeking to get a stake of around 20% in a global telecommunications operator through an asset swap, Altimo's General Director Alexei Reznikovich said in 2006.

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Posted to the site on 14th February 2007