11 June 2004 10:00
Sistema Sets Aside $600M for India Deals
Sistema, the conglomerate that counts top mobile operator MTS among its holdings, said it would pump more than half a
billion dollars into privatization projects in India over the next few years.
Sistema has already signed agreements with "virtually all Indian financial-industrial groups" in
preparation to enter the market, the company' s founder and principal owner, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, said in an
interview with Vedomosti.
Indian assets are "fantastically" undervalued, and the company has $600 million to spend, he said.
"Privatization is just starting there, and this is interesting for us."
Closer to home, Yevtushenkov said Sistema plans to take public a minimum of three of its subsidiaries in the coming
years, as well as offering shares in the holding itself.
"The need for serious funds is pushing us to do this," he said.
Shares in Scientific Center, a hi-tech manufacturing subsidiary, will be floated in 2007, Yevtushenkov said, without
identifying the bourse. He said insurer Rosno and digital telecoms operator Comstar United TeleSystems are also being
groomed for a listing, but he gave no details.
He said Scientific Center, which makes products ranging from telecommunications equipment to home appliances, will
post revenues of $500 million this year -- nearly 17 times more than it did just two years ago.
"We are studying the acquisition of another business, in which case Scientific Centers revenues would compare
with MTS's," he said.
MTS reported revenues of $2.55 billion in 2003.
Yevtushenkov dismissed rumors that the sale of a stake in MTS was being negotiated with British mobile giant
Vodafone.
The group was investing considerable funds in its media division, Yevtushenkov said.
First deputy director of Sistema-Media Nikolai Repin confirmed that the company will invest $100 million in its
multi-media services by the start of next year, when the company launches the nation's first interactive ADSL-based
television service.
Sistema is developing its own content as well as negotiating with Western studios, Repin said.
"We have the ability to get a TV signal to consumers -- it would be stupid not to use it," Yevtushenkov
told Vedomosti.
Yevtushenkov, who Forbes magazine valued recently as being worth $1.5 billion, said speculation that the real estate
market had peaked was "nonsense" and predicted that turnover for his group from its real estate division would
hit $3 billion in two years.
Yevtushenkov said the group was hoping to find a buyer among the top five international banks for a blocking stake in
its Moscow Bank of Reconstruction and Development.
"At the end of the day we only need it to service the accounts of our companies' 25 million clients,"
he said.
With foreign owners the bank could be turned into a "real" retail bank, he said.
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[The Moscow Times] |
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