Alfa wants to consolidate MegaFon, Turkcell -paper
MOSCOW Nov 2 (Reuters) - Russia's Alfa Group wants to consolidate its stakes in the country's third-largest wireless operator MegaFon and Turkey's Turkcell (TCELL.IS), a senior company official was quoted as saying on Monday.
Last month, Alfa resolved a multi-year dispute with Norway's Telenor (TEL.OL), agreeing to merge their Russian and Ukrainian holdings into a $23 billion telecom firm. Now the conglomerate can focus on its other assets. [nL5637811]
"We have two more assets -- a stake in MegaFon and in Turkish operator Turkcell," Alexei Reznikovich, Chief Executive of Alfa's telecoms arm Altimo, told Kommersant business daily in an interview.
"Now our aim is to consolidate these assets also, to create on their basis a Russian telecommunications company of a global standard."
Alfa Group, controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, holds around 4.99 percent in Turkcell and 25.1 percent in MegaFon.
"We do not plan to exit these assets. We are very happy with them. But we will attempt to change the situation in Turkcell and MegaFon in one way or another," Reznikovich said.
"We need to understand what can be done with our stakes...in order to give a maximum increase in value."
(Writing by Toni Vorobyova; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
((antonina.vorobyova@reuters.com; Tel: +7495 7751242, Reuters Messaging: antonina.vorobyova.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: TURKCELL MEGAFON/
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