Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 30
By Ilaha Mammadli - Trend:
Interest of investors for the mobile communication market of Azerbaijan is growing, and the Russian MegaFon operator also shows interest along with the largest mobile operator in Turkey, TurkCell.
This is due to the recent statement of the Swedish-Finnish TeliaSonera company to restrict its activity in the Eurasian region.
Fintur Holdings B.V., where TeliaSonera owns 58.55 percent of assets, holds share in Azercell Telecom. Currently, the Turkish Azertel Telekomunikasyon Yatirim Diş Ticaret A.S., a part of Fintur Holdings B.V., is the 100-percent shareholder of Azercell.
The company said that as part of its new strategy it will focus on Europe, particularly on Sweden, and will reduce presence in Eurasia, including Nepal, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Tajikistan.
TeliaSonera plans to completely leave the Eurasian region over time.
The process of reducing the company's presence in Eurasia, according to TeliaSonera, has already begun, but at this stage it is impossible to estimate how long it will take.
However, the sources on the telecommunications market told Trend Sept.29 that TeliaSonera is ready to transfer 58.55 percent of its shares to a single investor in the Eurasian region, so the negotiations on the sale of this share may be delayed.
Mobile operator TurkCell expressed willingness to acquire the assets of TeliaSonera in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan during the talks held last week in Baku. For this reason, there still remains uncertainty about the largest Turkish mobile operator's joining the Azerbaijani market of mobile communication, but this probability is estimated at 60 percent.
The desire to purchase only a part of the assets of TeliaSonera in the Eurasian region is due to the financial possibilities of TurkCell, so the deal can be implemented in case of accepting the conditions of the Turkish operator.
Regarding the Russian MegaFon operator, the talks on this issue has not yet been held with it.
Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first years sustains a leading position on the market. Azercell introduced number of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology, advance payment mobile services, GPRS/EDGE, 24/7 Customer Care, full-time operating Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service "ASAN imza" (ASAN signature) and others.
With 51 percent share of Azerbaijan's mobile market Azercell's network covers 99.8 percent of the country's population. Currently, the number of Azercell's subscribers reached 4.6 million people. In 2011, Azercell deployed 3G and in 2012 the fourth generation network - LTE in Azerbaijan. The company is the leader of Azerbaijan's mobile communication industry and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector.
TurkCell was established in 1994 and currently has a 34.3 million users' subscriber base in the Turkish market, and this figure is nearly 70 million taking into account the countries where the company operates. The Turkish operator is present on the telecommunications markets of Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia.
MegaFon is the Russian telecommunications company providing mobile services (GSM, UMTS and LTE) of communications, local telephony, broadband Internet access, cable television and a number of related services. The company was founded in May 2002. MegaFon operates in 83 regions of Russia and Tajikistan. The number of its mobile subscribers was 73.8 million as of June 30, 2015, according to the company.
By the way, TeliaSonera is one of the major shareholders of the MegaFon mobile operator in Russia.
Edited by CN