MegaFon in $1.18 Billion Purchase of Yota and Scartel

Cleary Gottlieb represented MegaFon in its purchase of 100% of Scartel and Yota from Garsdale Investments, MegaFon’s majority shareholder, for $1.18 billion, payable in two deferred tranches. MegaFon also purchased around $477 million of shareholder debt at par, and assumed certain other credit and guarantee obligations relating to the target group. The transaction closed on October 1, 2013.

MegaFon is the second largest mobile operator by subscribers in the Russian market. Scartel and Yota own and operate Russia’s nascent national 4G LTE network, and their acquisition by MegaFon leaves it as the leading 4G LTE operator in Russia.