According to local reports, a general meeting was held on December 30 2013 whereby 85.2% of shareholders present approved the proposition.
The Russian incumbent plans to spin-off its mobile holdings into an entity called RT-Mobile, as part of a joint venture with Tele2 Russia.
The spin-off is the first of the partnership with Tele2 Russia, which received board level approval to merge with Rostelecom’s mobile unit in early December last year.
Sergey Kalugin, president at Rostelecom, told local reporters that he expects the joint venture to create a company with a 16% subscriber share of the Russian mobile market.
“The new company will have a complete portfolio of frequencies and will operate commercially in 64 Russian regions,” Kalugin said.
“We believe that we are in fact creating a national mobile operator that has all the opportunities to be competitive on a national scale, and have great growth potential.”
The merger will reportedly be split into phases. Phase one will see Rostelecom contribute its standalone assets to a holding company called T2 RTK Holding, and in phase two Rostelecom is expected to spin-off its integrated mobile business into its wholly owned CJSC RT-Mobile subsidiary.
