MOSCOW—U.K.-based Inquam, a consortium of Qualcomm and Omnia, is reportedly negotiating a deal to purchase Russian CDMA carriers Moscow Cellular Communications (MCC), SONET and St. Petersburg-based Delta Telecom.
The news followed a statement by St. Petersburg-based Telecominvest holding that it had decided to sell its 25-percent stake in Delta Telecom, an NMT 450 MHz carrier that is building out a trial CDMA 450 MHz network in the second-biggest Russian city.
Last year, the Sistema-Telecom Financial Corporation said it would sell SONET, a CDMA (IS-95) carrier, and wireless market experts predicted that Sistema could also sell its 23.5-percent stake in MCC. The latter is an NMT 450 MHz carrier, which has already received permission to build out a commercial CDMA 450 MHz network. Earlier, Rostelecom included the sale of its 23.5-percent stake in MCC into its 2002 plans.
Inquam already owns the first Romanian CDMA 450 MHz network, which is a subset of Qualcomm-developed third-generation (3G) cdma2000 technology, and plans to build out another such network in Indonesia.
Inquam so far refused comment on the Russian deal. Neither Telecominvest nor Sistema have named the potential buyer, although they confirmed that talks are under way. “We believe the new investor is interested in CDMA development, and most likely its ambitions go far beyond St. Petersburg and the north-western region,” said Andrei Klimov, Telecominvest marketing director.
In the meantime, Russian experts listed other potential buyers, including the U.S. MTC Corporation, as it owns a 31.9-percent stake in Delta Telecom. However, Anton Pogrebinsky from J’Son & Partners telecom consultancy in Moscow believes MTC is now preoccupied with its Ingido project in Russia that unites 27 regional AMPS/D-AMPS carriers that are switching to GSM 1800 MHz technology.
“They are investing a lot into the development of regional GSM 1800 MHz networks. From that point of view, it is illogical for MCT to invest into Delta Telecom,” he said.
Another buyer on the list is a scarcely known telecom offshore firm, which is said to have been created by Qualcomm people.
Telecominvest explained the Delta Telecom sale as necessary to develop the pan-Russian Megafon project. “The decision of the holding leadership is caused by the intention to end competition between cellular communication standards. We shall concentrate on the development of the digital GSM standard in the framework of the Megafon project,” Klimov said.
Market experts estimate Delta Telecom at US$87 million, so the 25-percent stake may cost close to US$22 million.
The third Delta Telecom shareholder, Petersburg Telephone Network (PTS), is also expected to sell its 43.1-percent stake. “PTS is considering the sale of Delta. However the directors have not yet discussed the issue,” said PTS Director General Sergei Soldatenkov.
