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TeliaSonera, Altimo to Merge MegaFon, Turkcell Stakes

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- TeliaSonera AB, Sweden’s largest telephone company, and Russia’s Altimo agreed to combine their stakes in MegaFon and Turkcell into a new company to improve liquidity and control. 
The new company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and pay regular dividends, Stockholm-based TeliaSonera said in a statement today. The new company will be established in a western jurisdiction, TeliaSonera said. 
TeliaSonera is aiming to increase its control over holdings in the Baltics and Eurasia to increase synergies and secure the flow of profits and dividends. The agreement includes a solution to a legal dispute with Cukurova Holding over a stake in Turkcell, which will now be acquired by Altimo and contributed to the new company without a premium. 
“It may take some time before we reach the end result, but the new listed company will have exciting prospects and add value for our shareholders,” TeliaSonera Chief Executive Officer Lars Nyberg said in the statement. 
TeliaSonera climbed as much as 2.8 kronor, or 5.7 percent, to 51.10 kronor in Stockholm, the biggest intraday jump since July 24. The stock traded at 50.55 kronor as of 9:12 a.m. 
The new company will have more than 90 million subscribers in Russia, Turkey and the CIS, and will expand into new emerging markets, TeliaSonera said. 
Altimo, the telecommunications arm of billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group, last month announced a similar deal with Telenor ASA to combine stakes in OAO VimpelCom and ZAT Kyivstar into a new company incorporated in Bermuda and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.