Sistema mulls listing : Telegraph

Sistema mulls listing

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Rozanov in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI) New Delhi, Sept. 6: Sistema Shyam Teleservices plans to list on the Indian bourses by the end of this year to fund its expansion in the country. The CDMA telecom operator expects the Russian government to invest around $677 million for a 20 per cent stake by the end of September or early October. “We are seriously looking at the IPO option, and the Sistema board will take a decision to list in India by the end of 2010 or early 2011,” CEO Vsevolod Rozanov said. Sistema Shyam, which is 73.71 per cent owned by Russia’s Sistema with India’s Shyam Group holding around 23.79 per cent, operates under the MTS brand. The IPO and the investment by the Russian government will enable Sistema to pay for new base stations. Sistema spent around $1.5 million last year on rolling out its services in the country. This year, it plans to invest a similar amount. Rozanov said the company was banking on CDMA, whereas its rivals either use the GSM technology or use both CDMA and GSM, because it was most suitable for data services. “CDMA is the technology of choice for data and demand for data services will increase going forward.” He said Sistema Shyam was expected to turn EBITDA (earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) positive in 2013. The sole CDMA service provider in India is betting on the mobile data segment to increase its market penetration and generate high revenues. The telecom service provider today launched three smartphones priced between Rs 4,999 and Rs 13,500.