MTS left Ukraine. Russian company looks “very opportunistically” at its business in Belarus
Source：tut.by
From：Taiwan Trade Center Kyiv
Update Time：2020/06/17
The Russian telecommunications company MTS looks at its business in Armenia and Belarus “very opportunistically” (from the English opportunity is an opportunity). This was announced by MTS President Alexei Kornya at the presentation of the company's new strategy for 2020–2022, RBC reports.
“We have no task to sell these businesses, and we will develop them, but if a good offer to buy appears, we will consider it,” said Kornya.
Before the presentation, it became known about the departure of MTS from Ukraine. The Russian company announced the sale of its Ukrainian subsidiary Vodafone Ukraine to Telco Solutions and Investments, which also owns the Azerbaijani operator Bakcell. The MTS report said that the "deal is complementary to the updated strategy" of the company. The strategy involves a concentration of efforts in the Russian market, which generates more than 90% of the group’s revenue. The success of digital products in one country does not guarantee the popularity of these products in another. “There is no cross-country synergy on the telecom market,” said Kornya.
In the mid-2000s, MTS actively entered the mobile markets in the CIS, where service penetration was then lower than in Russia, and high growth rates were expected. In 2002, MTS launched a network in Belarus (the operator owns 49% of Mobile TeleSystems JLLC, 51% is owned by the state represented by Beltelecom), in 2003 it bought the Ukrainian mobile communications market leader UMC, and in 2004 - a controlling stake in Uzbek operator Uzdunrobita, in 2005 launched a network in Turkmenistan and announced the acquisition of the Kyrgyz operator Bitel, but the deal did not take place due to a corporate conflict. Finally, in 2007, MTS bought 80% of the Armenian operator K-Telecom (VivaCell brand).
However, in the next ten years, MTS had to leave part of foreign businesses. In 2010, the company suspended operations in Turkmenistan for the first time, and in 2012 in Uzbekistan. In both cases, the cause was disagreement with the local authorities. Subsequently, the company returned to these markets, but eventually left them.
As for Belarus, 6 years ago, the Russian operator made serious attempts to increase its stake to the control. The Belarusian authorities even put up for sale a state-owned stake in Mobile TeleSystems JLLC, the price of which ranged from $ 863 million to $ 1 billion. The leaders of the Russian MTS said they were not going to buy back the state share in the Belarusian "daughter" "more expensive than the market." Over time, this topic has come to naught. MTS was pleased with the business environment in Belarus and its partnership with the state. In the third quarter of 2019, Mobile TeleSystems JLLC increased revenue by 16.5% compared to the third quarter of 2018, to 274.8 million rubles.
Source：https://news.tut.by/economics/662732.html