Sistema to invest $4-7 billion in India

CMN Bureau

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Russian services conglomerate Sistema will raise $10 billion to fund global investments including India.

The company is planning to invest $4-7 billion in the Indian telecom space in the next five years time.

Vladimir Evtushenkov, chairman Sistema said that the company would raise the fund to expand its business worldwide.

“The fund will be raised from different fields,” he said. However, he denied revealing the details of the funds to be raised.

Speaking on the venture between Sistema and Shyam Telelink, Alexander Goncharuk, president and CEO, Sistema said that the company is currently not planning to increase the stakes in Shyam from the current 51 per cent to 74 per cent.

“It is not in the cards now, we may look at it after sometime,” Goncharuk said.

The company along with Shyam has recently got a pan-India license for offering its services in the country.

According to the license norms the company can offer both mobile and fixed line services in the country. However, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is yet to allocate spectrum to the operators. It may be mentioned here that a number of operators are in the queue for allocation of spectrum.

In a bid to launch its services the company is in talks with the major operators for the tower sharing business. “We will be looking at both individual and sharing of towers to offer our services,” Goncharuk said.

Commenting on the investment, he said that once the frequency is being allocated to them, the company would start rolling out its services.

When enquired about the technology, GSM or CDMA, which would be offered by the company, Goncharuk refused to comment.