Denis O’Brien, the founder of Digicel, has reportedly been lined up to join the advisory board of a new fund, founded by a Russian oligarch, that plans to invest at least $16 billion (€14.6 billion) in the European telecoms market.
Mr O'Brien is due to join the advisory board of LetterOne Technology, a British-registered company founded by the Alfa Group's Mikhail Fridman, whom Forbes says is Russia's second-richest man, with a $15 billion fortune.
LetterOne's chief executive, Alexey Reznikovich, told the Financial Times the company had no debt, which means it could potentially leverage its resources to deploy up to $25 billion in capital.
Mr O'Brien, who did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication, will be joined on the board by Lastminute. com founder Brent Hoberman, former Skype executive Russ Shaw and Poynt founder Osama Bedier.
The board will also include Julian Horn-Smith, a founder of Vodafone who is also a long-time adviser to Mr Fridman. Mr Horn-Smith also provides a link between the Russian and Mr O'Brien, for whom he serves on the board of Digicel.
Heavily
indebted operators LetterOne is poised to target telecoms incumbents across Europe, particularly heavily
indebted operators that might benefit from an injection of fresh capital. Eircom, whose lender-backers last year pulled a planned flotation of the business, could potentially fit some of its criteria.
Mr O’Brien has previously tried to buy Eircom, and is rumoured in the industry to retain a long-term interest in taking control of the group.
As well as targeting traditional telecoms operators, LetterOne will also target buyouts of companies seeking to disrupt the telecoms industry using fresh technologies, and also app and mobile content companies.
LetterOne Technology will also act as the holding company for Mr Fridman and his partners' 48 per cent stake in VimpleCom, a Dutch operator with global operations, and its 13 per cent share of the Turkish operator Turkcell.
LetterOne’s war chest for acquisitions is mainly derived from the proceeds of the 2013 sale of the Alfa group’s Russian oil company TNK-BP.
In the aftermath of that deal, Mr Reznikovich said he was looking at at least five European telecoms deals each valued at more than $1 billion.
Entrepreneurial culture Mr Reznikovich told the Financial Times that the European telecoms industry the European telecoms industry needs a more entrepreneurial culture, particularly when it comes to providing new services.
“The telecoms industry is extremely inefficient in how they deliver services,” he said.
Mr Reznikovich said some European telecoms incumbents risked “dying” unless they changed their mindsets and tapped into their knowledge of their huge customer bases.
He said the European industry, which is in the midst of a wave of consolidation among larger operators, is “old fashioned” and in need of an overhaul.
"[It] has become a victim of its inability to transform itself to address new challenges," he said. "Many companies will go under or be merged. They will vanish one way or the other." Additional reporting: the Financial Times
