VTB Capital, the investment arm of Russia’s VTB Group, has acquired a minority holding in National Satellite Company, Russia’s largest satellite TV operator working under the Tricolor TV brand name.
While announcing the partnership this past Tuesday, the partners in the deal provided no financials, but said that with its growing Russian subscriber base of more than 12.4 million.
Tricolor TV may consider preparing for an IPO “within the next few years” with VTB’s assistance.
An anonymous source with knowledge of the transaction leaked to the business daily Vedomosti that VTB-Capital has purchased 25% plus one share. The stake is rumored to have come in at what the insider surmised would be anything between $125 million and $175 million. The reckoning thus places Tricolor TV’s total valuation at a fairly competitive $500-700 million – a noticeable tapering down from the valuation the source said was first negotiated a year before.
According to analysts from Telecomdaily, with a 26% incremental increase in its subscriber base in 2012, Tricolor TV’s average revenue per user (ARPU) grew a sound 15% year-on-year.
Source: VTB-Capital, Tricolor TV
