Thursday, September 27, 2007

Sistema takes 10% in Shyam

Russian telecom firm Sistema has finally got a foothold in India — the company has picked up 10% stake in Shyam Telelink, which offers CDMA-based mobile services in Rajasthan, for $11.4 million.

Sistema said that it intends to increase its stake in Shyam to 51% after receiving approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) of India. If it goes through, the overall value of the deal may reach $58.1 million.

Earlier, Sistema had tried to pick up a stake in Aircel Cellular, but the deal fell through. It was also in the race for Hutchison’s stake in Hutch-Essar.

In a related development, Shyam Telelink has also applied for mobile licences, also called Universal Access Service Licence, across the country.

Sistema, which was founded in 1993, is the largest private sector consumer services company in Russia. Sistema, along with its subsidiaries serve over 80 million consumers in Russia, the CIS and Eastern and Western Europe

(Source: Economic Times)

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