Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Sistema Shyam Teleservices Signs Agreement With Vodafone India


Sistema Shyam Teleservices Signs Agreement With Vodafone India

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MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd., majority owned by Russian conglomerate AFK Sistema (AFKS.RS), has signed a franchising agreement with Vodafone India, Russian daily Vedomosti reports Tuesday, citing Vsevolod Rozanov, Sistema Shyam's general director.
According to the agreement, Vodafone sells modems under the NetCruise brand that run on Sistema Shyam's network. Sistema Shyam will share the revenue for servicing clients with Vodafone. Modem users will be considered Sistema Shyam subscribers but will be billed by Vodafone, Rozanov says.  

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd raises Rs 1280 cr loan from banks through NCDs


Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd raises Rs 1280 cr loan from banks through NCDs

The Indian arm of Russian conglomerate Sistema, that offers mobile services under the MTS brand has raised Rs 1280 crore loan from a consortium of banks through Non Convertible Debentures (NCD).

Deutsche Bank is the lead banker of the issue. This issue has been partially secured by guarantee of one of Russia's leading bank, Sberbank.

This is the second time in the last six months the company has raised money to fund its expansion plans. In September 2011, it has raised a Rs 920 crore loan from Barclays Bank and ICICI Bank. The telco has also said that it currently had several other facilities in pipe-line.

The entire amount of INR 1280 Crore has been received by SSTL. The 8 year Debt is payable by 2019, the company said in a statement.

"It was quite challenging to raise such significant funds with such long tenor under current uncertain regulatory environment in India, but business has to continue and grow. We are planning to utilize the proceeds to further scale up our telecom operations and repayment of maturing loan," Sergey Savchenko, chief financial Officer of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd said.

The company also got about $600 million when the Russian government bought under 20% stake in it in December 2010.

Post this deal, Sistema's stake in the JV has declined to about 54%. There are no changes in the Shyam group's shareholding and it has about 24% in the JV. Other minority shareholders own the residual 2% in the telco.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

MTS goes 'unlimited' for traders


MTS goes 'unlimited' for traders

India Blooms News Service



Mumbai, Jan 11 (IBNS): Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL) that nationally operates its telecom services under the MTS brand, on Wednersday announced the launch of ‘MBiz’ for its existing and new prepaid voice customers in Gujarat, Mumbai, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.




"Given the ever increasing economic activity in the region, MTS has specially designed its New Year initiative to suit the needs of the business community. Customers availing the offerings will get freedom to speak a lot more without worrying about huge mobile bills," said an official spokesperson.

According to Cheenu Seshadri, Chief Operating Officer, South & West Regions, MTS India, “The latest in our list of firsts is MBiz to provide unlimited local calling for our customers in Gujarat, Mumbai, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. This proposition has been specially designed to address the needs of high usage customers including the business community.”

Research shows, business community are heavy users of local calls made to customers, associates and employees. 

Friday, January 6, 2012

Sistema holds back IPO,may look at it after new telecom policy


Sistema holds back IPO,may look at it after new telecom policy

NEW DELHI: Volatile market conditions and uncertain regulatory framework in the telecom sector has forced new telecom operator Sistema-Shyam to postpone its proposal to enter the capital market through an IPO, but would consider the plan after the new telecom policy is announced.

"Given the present regulatory environment and unproductive market conditions, especially in the telecom sector, known to everyone, an IPO might not result in good valuations... One is looking forward to introduction of the new telecom policy which should in turn enable liberal merger and acquisition norms," Sistema-Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) President and CEO Vsevolod Rozanov said.

Such policy issues would go a long way in consolidation of the sector and thereby improve the operating environment for the entire telecom industry, he said.

SSTL offers mobile services under MTS brand and claims to be one of the fastest growing telecom companies in India in the telecom space.

The current economic environment has dampened the spirit of unlocking value of a range of infrastructure companies. The impact is felt even more so within the telecom sector given the range of issues being faced by the sector, he added.

Industry observers believe that such sentiments are a reflection of the current mood in the telecom industry.

In October last year, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had unveiled draft National Telecom Policy-2011 that paves the way for mobile telephone users to make calls without paying roaming charges and change operator outside their circle while retaining the same number.

Declaring an agenda of 'One Nation-One Licence' across services, the NTP endeavours to create an investor-friendly environment by attracting additional investments in the sector, which has been marred by controversies relating to 2G scam in the recent past.

SSTL has invested over USD 2.5 billion in India, focusing on its data centric and voice enabled strategy.

The company nationally provides telecom services to over 15 million wireless subscribers, including more than 1,200,000 high speed mobile broadband customers in over 200 cities across the country.

The company is a joint venture, involving equity participation by Russia based-Sistema, the Russian Government and the Shyam Group of India.

The Russian government holds a 17.14 per cent stake in the company. Sistema is the majority shareholder with a 56.68 per cent stake, Shyam Group holding a 23.98 per cent stake and others 2.2 per cent.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Government to charge for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz from new players


Government to charge for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz from new players

NEW DELHI: In a move that will provide a huge advantage to old GSM operators and impact the valuation of new entrants in the telecom sector, spectrum allotment beyond 4.4 MHz will now be done through an auction, though older players were spared such additional charges till they had 6.2 MHz.

"Telecom commission has decided to charge new operators. For additional spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz, telcos have to buy additional airwaves through auction," according a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Recently, new telecom operators such as Tatas, RCOM (for foray into GSM services), Sistema-Shyam, Uninor and others have written a letter to telecom minister Kapil Sibal terming the proposal to charge new telcos for additional spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz as discriminatory, saying it will impact their sustainability and scalability.

Trai has been mulling charging operators for additional 1.8 MHz (GSM)/2.5 MHz (CDMA) spectrum, beyond the start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz/2.5 MHz, respectively. Any change to the already existing contractual arrangements with regard to allocation of additional 1.8 MHz/2.5 MHz will be highly discriminatory, against the level playing field and likely to derail business plans, the new operators had said.

Citing various TDSAT rulings and views of DoT and Trai at various times, the operators said 6.2/5 MHz is considered the contractual minimum and the optimal quantity of spectrum for pan-India GSM operations.

The telcos had said that such changes would be in violation of the present licence conditions. Further, saying that any changes to the contract were not legally tenable, the operators have asked the government to re-consider the proposal and seek legal opinion on the same, before passing any final decision.

According to new players, they should be given more concessions in view of limited market as the old players have already cornered maximum spectrum as well as subscriber base.

Any move to charge for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz from new telco would send a wrong signal to the investors as they have entered Indian market based on licence conditions and business models of incumbent players.

Disclaimer

A BLOG FOR ALL THE SHAREHOLDERS OF SSTL (FORMERLY SHYAMTELELINK LTD) TO COME TOGETHER AND DISCUSS ISSUES OF COMMON INTEREST. YOU CAN REACH US AT AMSOST@GMAIL.COM