Who owns Tele2? To the card's current account

The Tele2 operator came to Russia in 2003. It was founded by a Swedish group of companies that had previously been involved in metallurgy, woodworking and telecommunications (commercial television, newspapers, cellular communications) in Europe. In recent years, there have been dramatic changes in leadership. Let's figure out who currently owns Tele2 and what changes in its policy should be expected.

We will tell you everything about Tele2 frequencies in Russia in the article at the link.

History of the company in Russia

The history of the promotion of a foreign operator in Russia was not easy. Obtaining licenses for frequencies without knowledge of the domestic market and the necessary contacts was very difficult. Answer the question: “Whose company is Tele2?” – difficult without immersing yourself in the stages of operator development.

2003

The first owner of Tele2 in Russia is the head of the Swedish holding, Christina Stenbeck. At that time, she was only 25 years old; she took over the company after the sudden death of her father. The conquest of the Russian market began with the regions according to one scheme, the Irkutsk region was the first - they bought local operator, to attract subscribers they set the lowest prices. The difference with the Big Three tariffs reached 1.5 times. Thus, networks were acquired in the Kemerovo, Omsk, Rostov, Smolensk regions, Udmurtia and St. Petersburg. Whose network was used for the connection? Communication was provided on the equipment regional operators under a single brand of the Swedish Tele2.

2004-2007

The company entered the Arkhangelsk, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Voronezh, Murmansk regions, and the Komi Republic. The number of subscribers has reached 6 million. The operator received its own service licenses in 17 regions. When selling a share in Irkutsk, we received preferential roaming in the Beeline network throughout Russia.

2008

Work is underway to build networks; regions are installing their own towers. The number of clients has reached 10 million.

2009

Tele 2 has already received licenses in 37 regions, its subscriber base is 14 million people.

2010-2012

Networks were launched in the Sakhalin, Kaliningrad and Magadan regions, Kamchatka, and the Jewish Autonomous Region. The number of clients reached 22 million.

2013

At the beginning of the year, the Swedish concern sells its branch in Russia. New owner Tele2 is a group of VTB Bank. Six months later, 50% of the company's shares were sold again. Who bought the Tele2 operator in the end? Private investors holding high positions in large organizations are Yu. Kovalchuk (Russia Bank), A. Mordashov (Severstal) and the SOGAZ insurance group. LTE technology has been successfully tested.

2014

Tele2 and Rostelecom have created a joint venture. The operator provides services in Moscow, the number of subscribers is 38 million. Now to the question: “Tele 2 - which operator is it?”, you can safely answer “federal”. 3G networks have been launched in the regions.

2015-2017

The launch of 3G continues, followed by 4G. 38 million people from 64 regions are connected. LTE access is available in select cities. There has been a change in marketing policy - the company attracts not only low prices, but also unique services. You will learn about how tele2 creates other rules from the article by our analyst.

Current owners

Who is the owner of tele2 at present: the shares are distributed among Rostelecom, which received 45%, the remaining 55% are distributed among investors. Tele2 is also owned by VTB (27.5%), SOGAZ (2.75%) and private individuals Yu. Kovalchuk (22%) and A. Mordashov (2.75%). Sergey Emdin was appointed General Director.

We will tell you all about the difficult relationship between Tele2 and Rostelecom in the next article.

How can monopoly be overcome? If the case is difficult - and in Russia the situation with monopolism is precisely a difficult case - then only with the help of another monopolist. I’m talking about the purchase by VTB Bank of the fourth largest bank mobile operator, Tele2, oddly enough.

The cellular company with Scandinavian roots has a debt of $1.15 billion. The transaction amount, taking into account the fact that the company will have to pay the debt, amounted to $2.4 billion. In general, the deal is strange. And the point is not at all that the bank bought the cellular company. Non-core business, all business - you know, for a banker any business is core. I'm not talking about that at all.

The bank bought the company in order to bring it into a smooth orbit and resell it at a profit, and the bank does not hide this. There seems to be nothing strange here, buy low and sell high - why not? But let's remember where Tele2's losses came from.

In January, I was in Tula, at a traditional seminar, which the Central Bank kindly conducts for journalists. Once I went out into the street, I noticed an advertisement for Tele2. To tell the truth, the prices amazed me; there are no such low prices in Moscow. In fact, it was precisely at a low price that the company achieved the fact that it became fourth in Russia in terms of the number of users mobile operator. The “Big Three”, no matter what anyone says, is a trio of monopolists, and if there is no direct price collusion (I think that in fact there is none), then there is a completely understandable practice when companies are guided by each other’s prices, slightly they manipulate prices, but do not reduce them too much, so as not to collapse the market. Any member of the “troika” understands: today he will come up with a real price reduction, and subscribers will run to him. Tomorrow our fellow competitors will do the same, and subscribers will again scatter between the three companies. There is no benefit, and the market is spoiled. This is what pricing is like in a monopoly environment.

But Tele2, as a non-Russian, Swedish entity, threw all these rules into the dust and began trading on the principle of “costs plus a reasonable margin.” And she was sent herself. You know that there is no Tele2 in Moscow? Do you know why? Because she wasn't allowed there. Well different ways They took me and didn’t let me in. There are all over Russia, but not in the capital. But it doesn’t spoil the market.

And now it gets ridiculous. As Tula residents told me, other Muscovites come to Tula, get a Tula number from Tele2 and use it in Moscow! Even taking into account roaming it turns out cheaper.

My point is that the company’s debts and its generally not very good financial performance came from one single circumstance. Absence of Moscow subscribers. Tele2 has a large audience. But it's of poor quality. Provincials are poor. In Tula, no matter who you ask what the salary is, they say: 8 thousand, 11 thousand, something like that. A local restaurant a la a German cellar, an excellent restaurant - both service, cuisine, and design - very, well, just sooo expensive. The dish - well, there are all sorts of sausages, as is customary in Germany, sliced ​​meat - as much as 150 rubles! Prohibitively expensive. And there is no one in the restaurant except for obscure bandits and a young man who has decided to conquer the girl with his unearthly chic. You can hear a calculator working in the young man's head. You can see how he watches in horror as the girl’s finger moves along the menu lines. This is how a roulette regular magnetizes the ball with his gaze: stop here! What's wrong, a salad for 25 rubles, well, choose it! No, I went further, to fish for 220 rubles, eh.

But we got distracted by gastronomy (probably because even as I write these lines, I’m really hungry). Let's get back to the deal. And let's simulate the situation. Here is a company that has problems. She comes to the bankers, this way and that, problems, what should we do about it. Competitors are squeezed, officials are bully, there is no life. Maybe you can give me a loan? The banker looks at the numbers, or rather not even at them, but at the circumstances surrounding the numbers. And he says: no, a loan won’t help you. They will bully you anyway, you will feed unsophisticated subscribers in Sarapul and you will never earn anything. The company has completely wilted, but here the parties understand.

“You’re VTB,” the company seems to be saying. - You shake hands at the very top. Take us! Come, Rurik, and Volodya us! And through your connections, help us take the capital.

Yes Yes. I really consider the purchase of Tele2 a kind of loan. They buy, they immediately say that they will sell, that is, they will be released when they help the company (well, they will not forget themselves). And yes, I really think that Tele2 will soon become available to Muscovites. If only because there is no other way to make it more profitable. And VTB is going to make it more profitable. And if so, then VTB has done a good job for us Muscovites. Well, really, stop feeding Kansas - that is, the “Big Three”.

In general, this story, like two peas in a pod (why two? Well, that’s what I wanted to write), reflects the peculiarities of doing business in Russia. When money doesn't solve everything and doesn't solve anything at all. Handshake and connections, connections and handshake. Proximity to a watering hole.

- Well, now we have no other choice, we’ll fight for water! - said the angry lion in the movie Madagascar 2.

In the American understanding, a bad manager is one who proposes to fight for diminishing resources instead of increasing the amount of resources. In the Russians' understanding, this is good manager. So that.

VTB Group entered into an investment deal to acquire 100% of Tele2 Russia from the Swedish Tele2 AB. The agreement signing ceremony took place on March 27 in Stockholm.

The transaction amount was $2.4 billion. The bank intends to develop the company’s business “for the purpose of subsequent implementation of the investment,” according to VTB’s website.

“We are confident that Tele2 Russia is a successful investment, which in terms of its financial indicators will grow faster than the market... In the future, we plan to attract a wide range of financial and strategic partners to develop this investment,” said Andrey, President and Chairman of the Board of VTB Bank Kostin.

According to the President and CEO of Tele2 AB, Mats Granryd, his company, in turn, intends to concentrate its efforts on its priority markets of Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan.

Tele2 Russia is the number four mobile operator in the Russian Federation, has licenses to provide services cellular communications in 43 regions and 22.7 million subscribers at the end of 2012. Revenue for last year was $1.9 billion, net profit was $300 million.

Tele2 Group is one of the leading mobile operators in Europe, with 38 million subscribers in 11 countries. In 2012, the company's sales reached $6.7 billion.

VTB PJSC VTB Bank is a systemically important financial institution, which is a key element of the VTB banking group and one of the largest banks in Russia. After the bank's successful SPO in May 2013, the state's share in VTB was reduced to 60.9% of shares. Key areas of activity - working with corporate clients and financial organizations, including government agencies and enterprises. In May 2016, after the completion of the integration process of the Bank of Moscow, a separate retail direction was formed at VTB - "VTB Bank of Moscow", which includes customer service - individuals and representatives of small businesses. In January 2018, PJSC Bank VTB 24 merged with VTB Bank.

As of September 20, 2018 Russian Federation represented by the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) owns 60.93% of ordinary shares of VTB Bank, 7.34% of ordinary shares belong to PJSC Bank FC Otkritie and related structures, 5.99% is controlled by PJSC Binbank, 2.95% - State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), 2.35% from the Qatari investment fund Qatar Investment Authority. Minority shareholders own 20.44% of the credit institution's common shares. The bank's ordinary shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, as well as on the London Stock Exchange in the form of global depositary receipts.

According to Banki.ru, as of March 1, 2019, the bank’s net assets were 13,941.98 billion rubles (2nd place in Russia), capital (calculated in accordance with the requirements of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation) - 1,572.61 billion, loan portfolio - 9,515.37 billion, liabilities to the population - 3,888.31 billion.

VTB will not sell Tele2 Russia in parts, but does not exclude the possibility of the asset entering into joint ventures. New owner also plans to change the structure of the operator’s board of directors, filling it with its own representatives.

Chairman of the VTB Board of Directors Andrey Kostin told reporters about this on Monday, April 15.

According to him, VTB will be focused on creating greater value for the asset, since it initially considered Russia as a financial investment with the possibility of subsequent exit from it.

“We do not rule out partnership with other companies to enter Tele2 Russia, but it is premature to declare “deep negotiations”,” explained Andrey Kostin. “There can be a variety of options, except for dividing the company into small parts and selling in pieces. This could be and mergers, and obtaining additional licenses."

VTB will soon begin to change the management of the company. “The changes will affect not so much the current management as the board of directors,” Kostin clarified. “Predominantly representatives of the VTB Group will appear there.” The head of the VTB board emphasized that, together with the management of Tele2 Russia, the bank will draw up a plan for the development and increase in the operator’s capitalization, designed for at least 12 months.

He plans to buy out Tele2 Russia from VTB and does not rule out the early start of negotiations with the bank. Last week, MTS OJSC Vice President for Finance and Investments Alexei Kornya stated that VTB will sooner or later need to exit these assets and that the bank is ready to cooperate.

Not only MTS is waiting for the Russian Tele2 to be put up for sale. In an interview with ComNews, Director of External Communications at VimpelСom Ltd. Bobby Leach noted that the company is considering opportunities in relation to Tele2 Russia and would be interested in purchasing if the asset is put up for sale by VTB.

According to information from sources in the telecommunications market, VTB discussed the possibility of a partnership with Arkady Rotenberg, who planned to buy out 10.7% of ordinary shares of Rostelecom OJSC from Marshall Group Konstantin Malofeev. According to their information, the option of creating a joint venture (JV) was discussed, in which VTB would contribute Tele2 Russia, and Rotenberg would contribute a stake in Rostelecom. This joint venture was supposed to become a virtual operator on the networks of Rostelecom, which, unlike Tele2, has licenses for mobile communications both third and fourth generations. However, the deal between Rotenberg and Malofeev did not take place.

As ComNews previously reported, after VTB announced the acquisition of the Russian division of Tele2 for $3.5 billion, MTS President Andrei Dubovskov and the head of VimpelСom Ltd. Joe Lunder sent a letter to the shareholders of the Swedish company, in which they assured that they could immediately sit down at the negotiating table and complete the deal as soon as possible, paying for Tele2 Russia from $4 billion to $4.25 billion, that is, an increase of almost a third asset value.

However, they did not have such an opportunity: the FAS approved the petition of VTB’s subsidiary, Airport Alliance BV. - about the purchase of Tele2 Russia, and the deal was closed.

The investment company A1 (a structure of Alfa Group of businessman Mikhail Fridman) also showed interest in the asset, which issued a statement that it had previously offered to buy the Russian asset from the Swedes for $3.6-4 billion.

VTB took over Tele2. The State Bank bought the fourth largest mobile operator for $3.5 billion. Previously, Tele2 was claimed by members of the Big Three - MTS, Beeline and Megafon, as well as the state-owned Rostelecom.

Most likely, one of them will eventually receive the treasured asset. Our economic commentator Lev Parkhomenko talks about a deal that has been awaited for a long time.

Parkhomenko: The announcement of the purchase of the mobile operator Tele2 by the state bank VTB from the Swedish company of the same name thundered yesterday evening like a bolt from the blue. Until yesterday there was not a single leak to the press, not even a hint that the asset was interesting to VTB. This situation is not very typical for the narrow Russian mobile market, where usually everyone knows everything about everyone. Tele2 is a tasty morsel, albeit with its own bitterness. Tele2 operates in 42 regions, this is almost the entire European part of Russia and some regions in Siberia and the Far East. Today it serves 22 million subscribers. On the one hand, this allows the company to occupy a strong fourth place in the mobile market, on the other, the gap from the big three is still very significant, and Tele2 cannot catch up with them. Tele2's main advantage over its competitors is price. This is a kind of mobile discounter. In many respects, the services of this operator are cheaper than those of its main competitors, which, of course, affected the average subscriber bill, which for the Swedes was 20-30% less. But still, there is a small white spot on this map, but the weight of this white spot is enormous. This is Moscow and the Moscow region. Tele2 does not work in the Moscow region and Moscow. This, by the way, is only according to official data, 20 million people, and according to unofficial data - all 30 million. There are several reasons why Tele2 does not work in the main market for any operator. Firstly, technical. There are simply no physical frequencies in Moscow, at least not available ones. Even the three operating operators do not have enough of them; this is the main reason, by the way, for the low quality of communications in the capital, which even Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently spoke about. Secondly, lobbying. The Big Three did everything possible to prevent another competitor from entering Moscow, and even a discounter who would dump. Finally, another big drawback of Tele2: this operator does not have a license for either 3G or fourth-generation communications. You can forget about the mobile Internet from your mobile phone, it simply doesn’t actually exist or is very slow. By the way, exactly Mobile Internet- the main source of growth for mobile operators now. One can argue whether the fact that these licenses do not exist is due to an administrative barrier or something else, but, nevertheless, it is so.

Realizing that the company had hit the ceiling, the Swedes mentally resigned themselves to the fact that they would have to lose their main asset - and the Russian subsidiary is main business Tele2 - still sell. And, despite two significant shortcomings, it was interesting to everyone. One of the big three, having acquired the asset, would get rid of competitors, and secondly, would receive a good impetus for growth, the sources of which are in the Russian mobile market, where there are 100 million more SIM cards issued than there are in the country at all population has almost dried up. For Rostelecom, Tele2 was simply created: the state-owned company has 3rd and 4th generation frequencies, and Tele2 has excellent professional experience in creating a large mobile operator. Both of them made attempts to absorb Tele2, to do it single-handedly. Beeline, Megafon or MTS were hindered by the Federal Antimonopoly Service, its position: the balance in the market would be disrupted. However, a version of the scheme appeared in the press that Alisher Usmanov, the owner of Megafon, buys out Tele2 and then sells it in parts to all three operators, whoever is more interested.

However, Usmanov himself categorically denied the very fact of negotiations under such a scheme. Meanwhile, Vedomosti sources reported that VTB intends to do just that: over time, sell off Tele2 piecemeal, most likely in favor of the big three. At least this is what the analysts I spoke with say. Maybe not all three, but at least two. Some of them will buy these parts. In fact, VTB may now be busy seeking a license, like a state bank with administrative resources, for Tele2 for 3G, 4G, and maybe for Moscow. It’s not very clear how, but nevertheless.

Also last summer, Rostelecom discussed with Tele2 the creation of a joint mobile operator, but the state-owned company itself is not very ready for a merger. Now it is at the stage of reorganization, merging with Svyazinvest, and a big deal would simply make this process very difficult, so this path is also impossible directly. It is possible that VTB, in this case the state bank, was asked to simply hold Tele2 so that someone would not intercept it. And by the time Rostelecom is ready to merge, take over Tele2 from VTB. Analysts say this is possible by the end of this year or maybe the beginning of next year. In my opinion, this is the most likely development of events. Rostelecom and Tele2 have too much synergy. And the last thing: as soon as VTB announced this deal, Alfa Group announced that it was going to buy Tele2, and was already negotiating, and the amount was much larger, and now it is actually possible that Alfa Group , or rather, its investment division “A1” will try to challenge this deal between Tele2 and VTB. And given the legal power of Mikhail Fridman and his group, and the fact that it managed to obtain the most incredible court decisions in its favor, it is possible that Alfa Group will be able to somehow complicate this deal. We will follow this story.