MOSCOW, March 1 (RIA Novosti) - Marshall Capital has sold its 10.7-percent stake in Russia’s state-run telecoms operator Rostelecom to billionaire Arkady Rotenberg for an “undisclosed amount,” the company said.
“We are satisfied with the terms of the deal. It is important for us to have as a buyer a domestic strategic investor who is seriously interested in the long-term development of Rostelecom as a leading national telecoms operator,” Marshall Capital said in a statement late on Thursday.
The price of Rostelecom’s common share grew 4.56 percent on the Moscow bourse on Thursday to 122.72 rubles ($4) bringing the estimated market value of Marshall Capital’s stake to 38.7 billion rubles ($1.3 billion).
However, a source close to Marshall Capital said that the stake was sold with a premium to the market price at about 150 rubles ($4.8) per share.
Rosenberg, whose personal fortune in road and pipeline construction is estimated by Forbes at $1 billion, is a newcomer to the telecoms market.
“The acquisition of Rostelecom stake is our long-term investment in the Russian telecoms market,” he said on Thursday. “The company has a great potential, both in terms of business development and capitalization growth.”
Rostelecom is Russia’s largest national telecommunications operator with 13 million mobile voice services subscribers and 28 million fixed-line voice subscribers in all Russian regions.
The company reported 238.7 billion rubles ($7.8 bln) of consolidated revenues and 30.6 billion rubles (about $1 bln) of net income for the nine months ended September 30, 2012.
