Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has granted ER Telecom permission to buy 100% stakes in two companies owned by Akado.
According to Comnews, the companies in question are Akado Ekaterinburg and TV Cable Network Neva, with the former deal being worth between R500 million (€7.15 million) and R1 billion and latter about R200 million.
It adds that experts believe that given the pay-TV market in Russia is now close to saturation, the only way for ER Telecom to expand is through the acquistion of other cable operators.
At the same time, Akado has already indicated its desire to dispose of its regional operations.
Akado Ekaterinburg had over 150,000 subscribers to its services as of the end of 2016, while TV Cable Network Neva, which is based in St Petersburg, had 60,000 cable TV and 13,000 fixed-line broadband subscribers.
The news come alongside the release of ER Telecom’s latest set of results.
Again quoted by Comnews, these show that its net profit in H1 was R576 million, or 87.8% more than in the same period last year. Its net debt was R28.2 billion, up from R18 billion a year earlier.
ER Telecom’s consolidated revenues in H1 were R16.2 billion (+21.7%).