Germanos of Greece may decide to part with its interest in Daewoo Unitel, the second largest GSM-operator in Uzbekistan with about 150,000 subscribers (according to ACM-Consulting). Insiders say that Germanos already has several offers from other companies. According to the Greek newspaper Kerdos, they are China Telecom and some Russian company. It is reasonable to assume VympelKom in the role of the latter. Its major rival, MTS, expanded into Uzbekistan last year when it bought leader of the local market Uzdunrobita. MegaFon, the last member of the Russian Big Trio, says again and again that it does not plan any expansion abroad for the time being (but admits that all promising deals will certainly be considered). VympelKom executives confirm that the Uzbek market is definitely an interesting area but decline comments on the Daewoo Unitel deal.

Alpha Telecom, one of VympelKom's major stockholders, bought Buztel and Uzmacom in Uzbekistan in late 2004 and early 2005. Insiders implied then that the assets were bought with interests of VympelKom in mind. And yet, even together these two companies do not hold a candle to Daewoo Unitel. VympelKom management claims that it does not have any obligations with regard to Alpha Telecom and is therefore guided by economic expediency alone. Well, operators have a choice now. As a matter of fact, not all of Daewoo Unitel is put up for sale while Buztel and Uzmacom are owned by Alpha Telecom completely. Unlike MTS, however, VympelKom is not after complete control over subsidiaries. No wonder it sold 49% stock in the Kazakh KaR-Tela bought last year, to a local partner.

© Translated by Ferghana.Ru