The EBRD said in a press release that "the loan will help MTS roll out in Russian regions where it currently does not operate, increase the capacity and the variety of services in other regions outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as other CIS countries."
"The long-term EBRD financing will complement parallel three and five-year loans totaling $1.33 billion being put together for an ambitious regional roll-out by a syndicate of commercial banks," the EBRD said.
In addition to providing new funding, the EBRD said it had extended the maturity of $138 million outstanding under an existing $150 million loan disbursed in 2004, bringing the total of the long-term funding to $250 million.
MTS has licenses to operate in 86 of Russia's 88 regions, the EBRD said, an area that covers 142 million people, or 98% of the country's population.
MTS had approximately 64.2 million subscribers as of April 2006, the bank said. MTS is 53% owned by Sistema (RTS: AFKS, LSE: SSA), Russia's largest private sector consumer-services company, and 47% of its shares are listed on NYSE, according to the EBRD.
