Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee, following six-month secondary proceedings, has decided to uphold a decision to allow Norway's Telenor and Russia's Alfa-Group to merge CJSC Kyivstar GSM and OJSC VimpelCom.
"Based on the position of the cellular providers and the national commission for regulating telecommunications, as well as options for converting domestic radio frequencies, the committee has concluded that there are no reasons at present for reversing this earlier decision," the committee said quoting its acting head Yuriy Kravchenko.
The committee said that it had received information about both providers’ results for 2009. It also said that it had received additional information from the National Commission for Regulating Communities on radio frequencies. With this information, the regulator determined the market shares of the operators in monetary terms and according the number of subscribers.
"It was determined that the structure of the cellular market in 2009, in comparison with previous periods, did not undergo substantial changes. According to the AMC, the unification of radio frequency shares for the use by a single operator formed in a merger was primarily the necessity of combining both operators’ networks in a single technological cycle in order to provide quality services to subscribers," the committee said.
CJSC Kyivstar GSM is happy with the commission’s findings in regards to its merger in Vimpelcom in order to form the Vimpelcom Ltd. Holding. "We waited quite a long time for a final decision from the Antimonopoly Committee concerning the companies’ merger and welcome its approval," Ihor Lytovchenko, Kyivstar’s president, was quoted as saying in a company statement.
He also said that the company is still awaiting the necessary documentation from the AMC but is already to carry out the merged company’s primary operations: expanding its leadership in cellular communications, actively developing data transfer services and raising the efficiency of the merged business.
The AMC also said that it had presented fines worth Hr 100,000 to Altimo Holdings & Investments Ltd, which manages Alfa-Group’s telecommunications assets for its lateness in providing information on its stake in Turkey’s Turkcell. Turkcell owns a 55% stake in another Ukrainian cellular operator, Kyiv-based OOO Astelit.
