TeliaSonera to list up to 25% of Kcell on Kazakh exchange, LSE
MOSCOW. Nov 13 (Interfax) - Kazakh cellular provider Kcell has officially announced plans to hold an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange and the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).
Kcell's core owner, TeliaSonera, said in a press release that it planned to float up to 25% of Kcell on the exchanges.
A source with knowledge of the matter told Interfax that the IPO might take place in the first half of December.
Kcell intends to apply to the UK Listing Authority to have Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) admitted to the LSE.
Credit Suisse, UBS and Kazakhstan's Visor Capital are organizing the IPO and Renaissance Capital and Halyk Finance are co-organizers.
"Kcell is an important part of our global operations and one of the most successful subsidiaries of TeliaSonera", said Lars Nyberg, President and CEO of TeliaSonera. "We are fully committed to Kcell, which will continue to benefit from using our global brand identity, participating in international roaming and joint technology initiatives, including common procurement across the TeliaSonera group. We will work with Kcell to ensure that it complies with international best practice in terms of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility as it makes the transition to a publicly listed company."
"We are very excited to be listing Kcell both domestically and internationally. This is a significant milestone for our company, which over the past fourteen years has led the formation and development of mobile telephony in Kazakhstan", said Veysel Aral, Chief Executive Officer of Kcell. "We expect that the IPO will help us to further strengthen our corporate brand and business reputation, improve our access to the international capital markets and help us to grow our business further".
TeliaSonera may also sell 10.6% of Russia's Megafon , in which is owns a 35.6% stake, on the LSE before this year is out.
Kcell, which owns the Kcell, Activ and Vegaline brands, is Kazakhstan's biggest cellular operator by both subscribers and revenue. It has 12.7 million subscribers (47.7% of the market) and its market share by revenue was 57% in 2011.
TeliaSonera controls 86.9% of Kcell - 49% via its wholly owned subsidiary Sonera Holding B.V. and 37.9% via Fintur Holdings, which is a joint venture between TeliaSonera and Turkcell.
Kcell's sales revenue was $1.19 billion in 2011, EBITDA - $706 million and EBITDA margin - 59.2%; net profit was $446.1 million. Revenue was $888.2 million in January-September 2012, EBITDA - $497.2 million, the margin - 56% and net profit - $307.4 million.
Kazakhstan has two other GSM providers: Kar-Tel, controlled by Russia's VimpelCom ; and Tele2 Kazakhstan.