GSM Kazakhstan

active

K'Cell was granted a license to provide mobile phone services using GSM technology by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) in December 1998. Initially, the government called a tender to award one mobile phone license which was won by Kar-Tel in July 1999, but the government decided to awarded a second license to K'Cell, the other competitor in the license process. K'Cell was created as a joint venture between Fintur (a 58.55% Sonera, 41.45% Turkcell joint venture) (51%) and the partially privatized local operator Kazakhtelecom (49%). The merger between Telia and Sonera was realized on December 9, 2002, the company and share name changed to TeliaSonera. K'Cell had invested US$120 million in its network by 1999. The company and its competitor Kar-Tel launched their commercial operations in March 1999, breaking the monopoly that Altel, a joint venture between PLD Telecom of the U.S. and the national operator Kazakhtelecom, had since 1994. In 1999, MIGA issued an US$ 14.3 million guarantee to the banks providing loans to the project company. Kcell invested US$38 million in 2001. Turkcell was 37.1% owned by TeliaSonera. In January of 2003, Kcell announced that Sonera of Finland was to provide it with a loan of US$55 million. The cellular operator was to spend the money on modernising and increasing the capacity of its network, which had served 750,000 subscribers, of which over 500,000 were active by end 2002. Kcell had claimed its 1.7 millionth subscribers and at the end of 2004. As of May 2006, Kazakhtelecom had a 49% stake in GSM Kazakhstan. The government held 50% plus one stake in Kazakhtelecom through a state holding. In 2008, Teliasonera held 51% stake in K'Cell (TeliaSonera holds directly and indirectly 74% in Fintur Holdings), while Kazahktelecom had a 49% stake. In December 2011, Kazakhtelecom sold its 49% stake to TeliaSonera for US$ 1,519 million. The sale was completed in February 2012. In December 2012, K'Cell floated 25% of its shares on the London and Kazakhstan stock exchanges (50 million shares, $525 million). Following the IPO, TeliaSonera would continue to hold 61.9% of K'Cell shares. http://www.miga.org/screens/projects/guarant/regions/eca/Fintur.htm 2011 Capex estimated - Teliasonera's Capex /Sales % 16.5 to GSM Kazakhstans revenue (from Wireless Intelligence) 2010: Capex was estimated by applying TeliaSonera's company-wide 2010 Capex-to-Sales ratio of 14% to Kazakhstan sales revenues. 2008 and 2009: investment data are estimates. First, TeliaSonera's annual capex per subscriber for the Eurasian region was found. Then this was multiplied by the no. of Kcell subscribers for that year. 2004: investment data were not reported, but in 2005 the company declared it had spent 300 million in network investments "over the past 5 years" (thus 116 = 300 - 66 - 70 - 23 - 25).