MTS has agreed to sell its telecommunications operations in Ukraine to Telco Solutions and Investments, controlled by telecommunication company Bakcell, which is a part of NEQSOL Holding international group of companies.

Ukraine is not a major focus area for MTS. Russia accounts for over 90 percent of MTS Group revenue.

MTS’s subsidiary Allegretto will sell its 100 percent stake in its Dutch subsidiary Preludium, the sole shareholder of VF Ukraine PrJSC, for cash consideration of USD 734 million including approximately USD 84 million earn-out. The enterprise value of the company will be USD 848 million.

MTS President and CEO Alexey Kornya said: “This deal is in line with our strategy to build innovative digital services on top of a strong telecoms foundation.”

MTS Ukraine said its 4G network coverage reached 66 percent. MTS Ukraine said its 3G coverage reached 86 percent of the population. The number of mobile phone users, who use data services, reached 10 million.

MTS Ukraine said its mobile subscriber base fell 1.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to 19.8 million during the September quarter of 2019.

MTS Ukraine reported revenue of UAH 4.3 billion registering growth of 29.7 percent fuelled by surging data consumption and increasing retail sales during the third quarter of 2019.

MTS Ukraine said OIBDA rose 28.9 percent to UAH 2.4 billion with OIBDA margin of 54.6 percent as a result of the strong revenue performance.