LONDON â€" A bidding war has broken out for the cell phone operator Tele2 Russia.
The Russian investment firm Alfa Group said on Thursday that would offer up to $4 billion to buy the local cell phone operator. It announced the bid after the the Swedish telecommunications company Tele2 earlier agreed to sell its Russian unit to local bank VTB Group for $2.4 billion, plus debt.
Alfa Group, whose chairman is the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, said VTB’s offer for Tele2 Russia undervalued the cell phone operator, adding that it was also considering an offer to buy the rest of Tele2’s operations.
Alfa Group “is interested and willing to agree to a purchase price for the remaining assets of Tele2 over a very short period of time,†the Russia company, which also holds a majority stake in the Russian cell phone company Vimpelcom, said in a statement on Thursday.
Shares in Tele2 rose 3.5 percent in morning trading in Stockholm on Thursday.
