8 February 2008
The fastest developing mobile operator in Ukraine Astelit (the company’s subscriber base rose from 0 in February 2005 to 2.46 mln in December 2005) announced that it attracted two syndicated loans of total volume USD 540 mln. Both loans were taken for 6 years. The money will be spent for debt refinancing, CapEx and increasing working capital. Concorde Capital: Astelit has shown that a company can successfully enter an almost monopolized mobile market, and makes us slightly optimistic about Ukrtelecom (UTEL: HOLD) mobile plans, however, UTEL will need a well-developed strategy.