The Russian government has acquired a 20% stake in Indian mobile network Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) for $676.9 million. The operator will use the funds to build-out its network across India. The plan involves issuing 662.75 million shares, a 19.8% stake, on a preferred basis to the Russian Federal Property Agency at RUB49.31 ($2) each. Sistema pledged to buy back the government’s SSTL shares in five years’ time.
Prior to this deal, SSTL was 73.71%-owned by Russian conglomerate Sistema, India’s Shyam Group held 23.79%, and the remainder was spread across minority shareholders. After the deal, Sistema reduced its holding in the Indian company to about 54%.
According to SSTL’s CEO Vsevolod Rozanov, the new share-holding pattern will “improve the financial stability of SSTL and will increase its share value.”
For the record, SSTL is a CDMA-based carrier operating in 8 eight of India’s 22 telecom service areas. At the end of Q3 2009, it had just under 2 million connections.
[Via: GSMA]