YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. MTS company (Russia) has purchased 80% of shares of K-Telecom company (brandname "VivaCell") for 310 million euros. The president of MTS Leonid Melamed said at the September 14 press conference that 50 million euros of this sum will be paid within the next three months - in case of fulfilment of certain obligations by K-Telecom. Besides, the Russian company will provide a credit of 140 million euros to K-Telecom for implementation of the investment program, including the purchase of new equipment. According to L. Melamed, MTS can buy the remaining 20% shares of K-Telecom no sooner than starting from 2010. He said that Armenia has become the sixth country where MTS is operating. The owner of K-Telecom Pierre Fatush said that he will implement an investment program of 1 billion dollars in Armenia. In his words, the company will allocate the sum received from the sale of shares for this program. As of July 1, VivaCell has 986 thousand subscribers or 66% of the Armenian mobile phone communication market. K-Telecom's revenues made 104.1 million USD last year.

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