The parties announced the agreement late in the evening of September 21. Alexander Mamut confirmed to Kommersant the "fact of acquiring 100% of the share capital of the Euroset group of companies." Yevgeny Chichvarkin limited himself to the phrase: "We'll sell by morning."
The parties did not disclose the amount of the deal. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Mamut will pay about $400 million excluding debt, which stood at approximately $850 million. Including debt, the retailer was valued at $1.25 billion.
Largest network
At that time, Euroset was Russia's largest mobile phone retail chain: more than 5,000 points of sale in Russia and the CIS countries. Revenue under IFRS for 2007 was $3.6 billion. The company's shareholders were Chichvarkin and Artemyev, each owning 50%.
Negotiations and searches
Kommersant had repeatedly reported on the possible sale of a stake to an outside investor. Initially, interest in the retailer was shown by a consortium of investors led by MTS. On September 10, the second-largest mobile retailer, Svyaznoy, issued a mandate to the investment bank KIT Finance to organize a deal; VimpelCom was also named among possible contenders.
Talk of a imminent sale of Euroset intensified in early September, during the escalation of the company's conflict with law enforcement agencies. Representatives of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation conducted searches at the company's central office. Vice President Boris Levin and Deputy Head of Security Andrei Ermilov were arrested.
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