TeliaSonera acquired telecom-assets from 2 Kazakh businesswomen Aigul Nuriyeva and Raushan Sagdiyeva for $205 mln. Both ladies earlier worked with Karim Massimov, ex-premier of
Nordic TeliaSonera announced that two
The Sweden-based telco brokered a $170 million deal to acquire the WiMAX assets of local company Alem Communications from owner Midas Telecom. Alem holds spectrum in the 2.5 Ghz-2.6 GHz bands, which will be handed over to Kcell, TeliaSonera's existing mobile operation in
The operator also agreed to pay $35 million for an indirect minority stake of unspecified size in fibre-optic network provider KazTransCom. Kcell will also have access to that business on commercial terms. The seller in the second deal was Raushan Sagdiyeva, who sold her share via her firm Alatau LLP.
Raushan Sagdiyeva – the daughter of Maktai Sagdiyev, ex-speaker of Supreme Soviet of Kazakh SSR. She is now the Deputy General Director of Mercury company.
Aigul Nuriyeva is the daughter of Marat Nuriyev, the president of Almaty Academy of Economics and Statistics. She is the head of investment companies Bodam and Alnair Capital Holdings that own minority shares in Kazcommercebank and the monopolist company Kazakhtelecom.
Nuriyeva via Bodam owns 49% shares in the 3d largest KZ operator -Mobile Telecom Services. The controlling shares of this operator belogn to Swidsih Tele2-the major competitor of TeliaSonera in domestic market. However, it is not the first case when in Ccentral Asia it deals with its competitors’ partners.
CNews’s source in telecom-market said that Nuriyeva is the trustee person of Karim Massimov, the ex-premier. Both Sagdiyeva and Nuriyeva earlier were the employees of People’s Bank of Kazakhstan when Massimov was the bank’s Chairman. In 2000 he left the bank for the position in the government, first becoming the Minister of transport and communication and in 2007 - Vice-Minister. Since last fall Massimov is the head of President’s administration.