Ukrainian authorities OK purchase of UMC cellular operator by MTS

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has authorized the MTS company to buy 57.7% of the shares in the Ukrainian cellular operator UMC, a representative of the committee's press service reported to RBC. Additionally, the antimonopoly committee has banned Ukrtelecom, the national telecommunication operator, from providing cellular communication services for as long as it is a shareholder in UMC.

As it was reported earlier, MTS had suspended the deal on purchasing UMC due to a dispute between the Elmax company, a shareholder in Ukrtelecom, objecting to the sale, and Ukrtelecom. On January 24, 2003, the Kiev Court for Commercial Disputes rejected the lawsuit filed by Elmax to declare void a resolution by the Cabinet of Ministers, which holds 50.1% of the shares in Ukrtelecom, on selling a block of UMC shares, and Elmax has now filed an appeal against this ruling.

An agreement between MTS and UMC on the purchase of 57.7% of the shares in the Ukrainian company for $194.2m was made on November 5, 2002. As a result of this deal, MTS would receive 1.7m of news users in Ukraine. MTS also planned to buy 25% of the shares in UMC from Ukrtelecom (which holds 51% of the shares in UMC).

© &to=http://www.rbc.com' target=_blank>RBC

&to=http://www.mts.com' target=_blank>MTS