Privately held conglomerate Alfa Group has pledged its 25.1%
stake in Russia's third-biggest mobile provider, OAO Megafon, to a
state-owned bank as loan collateral, business daily Vedomosti
reports Wednesday.
The stake replaces the 44% holding in No. 2 provider OAO Vimpel
Communications (OVIP) with which Alfa previously collateralized its
$1.5 loan from Vnesheconombank, or VEB. The change was required by
last week's formation of VimpelCom Ltd., a holding company that
merged the Russian and Ukrainian telecom assets of Norway's Telenor
ASA (TEL.OS) with those of Alfa Group, including the original
VimpelCom. Telenor now holds 39.6% of VimpelCom Ltd.'s common
shares, while Alfa holds 39.2%.
A source close to Altimo, Alfa's telecommunications-holding
unit, told Vedomosti about the stake substitution. VEB spokeswoman
Yekaterina Karasina confirmed this, adding that the bank's
supervisory board approved the change. An Altimo spokesman, Yevgeny
Dumalkin, declined to comment, the newspaper says.
In October 2008, Alfa's Eco Telecom Ltd. indirect subsidiary in
Gibraltar took out a one-year, $2 billion loan from VEB so it could
repay Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and avoid risking the loss of Altimo's
VimpelCom stake. In April 2009, Altimo repaid VEB $500 million, and
last October the bank extended the loan for another year.
Uralsib Capital analyst Konstantin Belov said the total value of
Megafon is comparable to that of VimpelCom--about $19 billion--once
an allowance for net debt is made.
Newspaper Web site: www.vedomosti.ru
-Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2900