- VimpelCom (VIP) has moved up sharply during the past hour to its intraday peak, up 7.3% in a rebound after overnight reports that it's hired UBS, Merrill Lynch and TAP Advisors to help it explore strategic options including a $5B sale of a cell tower portfolio.
- The company is shopping about 50,000 towers in Russia and former Soviet republics, Bloomberg reported.
- VimpelCom could create a holding company with a partner instead, sources said. Its Wind unit in Italy agreed to sell a stake in its towers to Abertis for $784M.
- The company is pursuing cost reduction as it looks to boost cash flow, and a global trend of towers divestment could help there. “We continue to monitor trends in the global telecoms market and looking at effective business models for tower infrastructure, which help reduce costs and construction time, aid geographical expansion and increase quality for consumers at an attractive price,” the company says.