Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio) added 1,822,800 shares to his stake in VimpelCom Ltd. (VIP, Financial).
VimpelCom was founded in Moscow in 1992 when Russia was still part of the Soviet Union. Russian scientist Dmitry Zimin and American Augie K. Fabela II created a partnership to pioneer the mobile industry in Russia. The two entrepreneurs originally had the goal in mind of creating a mobile network that would provide services for up to 600 customers. They had never imagined that 24 years later, the company would be serving over 200 million customers across 14 countries worldwide. The company is now headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and has the ability to reach 10% of the world's population with its services.
VimpelCom has a market cap of $6.68 billion, an enterprise value of $13.13 billion, a P/B ratio of 1.58, and a dividend yield of 0.94.
Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio) may have added 1,822,800 shares of VimpelCom Ltd for the following reasons:
- Vigilant leader Jean-Yves Charlier is the current CEO of the company. He holds a tremendous amount of experience in the telecom business. He was the chairman and CEO of SFR, the second largest telecom operator in France up to the end of 2014. Leading up to his role at SFR, Charlier was head of Telecoms and a member of the Vivendi management board. He developed and led the strategy for the demerger of SFR in a €17 billion transaction with cable operator Numericable. Charlier has also has been on the board of several other listed companies including Activision Blizzard and Vivendi. He holds an MBA from the Wharton Business School.
- VimpelCom is close to its 12-year low in price, currently trading at $3.72 per share.
- The company has seven diversified, international established consumer brands. These brands include Beeline, Wind, Djezzy, Banglalink, Mobilink, Telecel, and KYIVSTAR.
- VimpelCom has been able to expand its operations to having an enterprise value of $13.6 billion while at the same time serving over 200 million customers across 14 countries.
There has been talk over the previous year that the Norwegian telecoms group Telenor ASA, which currently owns a 33% stake in the company valued at $2.06 billion, could sell its stake in VimpelCom in the near future.
According to a Bloomberg article on June 1:
“Telenor ASA, the Nordic region’s largest phone company, is still preparing for sale of its $2.06 billion stake in VimpelCom Ltd., according to Chief Executive Officer Sigve Brekke. The CEO spoke to Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin at the World Economic Forum hosted by Kuala Lumpur, which is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aimed primarily at promoting economic growth and regional stability among its members.”
You can listen to the interview with Sigve Brekke here.
Grantham is the chairman and co-founder of the investment firm Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC, which is a company based in Boston.Ă‚ Initially the three partners were solely managing U.S. equity portfolios. As the years rolled on, the firm expanded and became a global diversified investment firm.
Grantham's investment firm GMO LLC currently owns 576 stocks with a total valuation of $26.752 million.
Cheers to your investment success.
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