Russia's Sistema in talks to sell MTT stake

MOSCOW, July 22 (Reuters) - Russian services conglomerate Sistema (SSAq.L) is in discussions to sell its stake in long-distance provider Multiregional TransitTelecom (MTT), a company official told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We are in talks to sell our stake, 50 percent of voting shares, in MTT," Kirill Semenov, a spokesman for Sistema, said. He declined to give further details.

The state anti-monopoly service said on Tuesday Russian telecom company Synterra had filed for permission to buy 100 percent of MTT.

Synterra declined to comment. MTT says it has 6.8 percent of the Russian market for domestic and international long-distance phone calls. Its revenues exceeded $1 billion in 2007.

In April, Russian media reported that Sistema's board of directors had approved selling 50 percent of MTT to Synterra for around $400 million.

The remaining 50 percent of MTT is owned by Gamma Capital, which Danish lawyer Jeffrey Galmond says he owns. According to the Vedomosti business daily, Galmond has decided to sell off all his Russian telecom assets, including his stake in Russia's No.3 mobile carrier, MegaFon.

An industry source told Reuters the deal between Sistema and Synterra would be linked to the acquisition by Sistema of Sky Link, a Russian cellular operator working in the CDMA standard in which Sistema and Galmond each own 50 percent.

"It will be virtually one deal," the source said.

Sky Link had 578,000 subscribers at the end of last year. It had revenue of about $300 million in 2007 and monthly average revenue per user of $49.3. Sistema's main asset is Russia's largest mobile phone operator MTS (Mobile TeleSystems) (MBT.N). It also controls fixed-line operators Comstar CMSTq.L and MGTS (MGTS.RTS), as well as a number of non-telecom assets. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Quentin Bryar)