The battle for Svyazinvest

Asset privatized: Svyazinvest

Asset privatized: Svyazinvest

Percent sold: 25% of shares plus one

Amount paid: $1.9 billion

Date: July 25

Successful bidders: Uneximbank, Soros Quantum Fund, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, Morgan Stanley Asset Management

In the last minutes before five o’clock one Friday this past summer, the biggest privatization deal in Russia came down to two envelopes. The atmosphere that day was electric.

At 20 minutes to five Moscow time, Leonid Rozhetskin arrived at Russia’s privatization committee offices with an envelope in his hand. The head of investment banking for Renaissance Capital in Moscow was carrying a top-secret billion-dollar bid for 25% of Svyazinvest, the country’s telecommunications network and the most eagerly awaited privatization deal to date.

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