Access Telecommunications Cooperatief (ATC) has initiated an option to buy an 11.06% stake in Russia’s Comstar-UTS for $322.2 million (€219.6 million). ACT is owned by the billionaire Len Blavatnik, and the call option was originally issued by Comstar-UTS’s subsidiary MGTS in part payment for the acquisition of a 25% plus one share stake in the telco Svyazinvest in December last year. Sistema-backed Comstar-UTS is the leading provider of fixed line services in the Russian capital, Moscow. Its interests include the IPTV service Stream TV.
