Vertical ( rus, Вертикаль) is a Russian company that engaged in the construction and further leasing of towers to mobile operators such as MTS,

MegaFon MegaFon (russian: МегаФон), previously known as North-West GSM, is the second largest mobile phone operator

VimpelCom VEON Ltd. (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.) is a Dutch-domiciled multinational telecommunication services company. It predominantly operates services in the regions of Asia, Africa and Europe. It is the 13th largest mobile network operator in the world ...

and

Tele2 Russia Tele2 Russia is a Russian Telephone company, telecommunications company originally founded by Sweden, Swedish Tele2. It has been operating since 2003. Since 2020, Tele2 Russia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rostelecom. At year-end 2019, Tele2 Rus ...

. According to the research done by ''Advanced Communications & Media'' (AC&M), in the first half of 2019, Vertical was the second largest independent telecom infrastructure company in Russia, owning 3500 towers.

Industry

The company was established in 2013, when

mobile operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sel ...

s began to actively develop the LTE standard in

Moscow region Moscow Oblast ( rus, Моско́вская о́бласть, r=Moskovskaya oblast', p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ), or Podmoskovye ( rus, Подмоско́вье, p=pədmɐˈskovʲjə, literally "under Moscow"), is a federal subject of Rus ...

. Large, complex and expensive towers of up to 100 meters high were presented at that time in the market. Vertical specialised in simple and cheap dual-purpose supports, which, in addition to base stations, were equipped with lighting and other equipment. The company began servicing MTS, Megafon, VimpelCom, and Tele2, and by 2015 leased them about 1,000 towers . In 2015 and 2016, the company participated in the competition for the purchase of VimpelCom towers . As of July 1, 2017, the company owned more than 2,500 cells sites in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and

, making it the second largest independent infrastructure company in Russia. In the first half of 2019, the company owned approximately 3,500 thousand towers.

Owners and management

The business weekly "Kompania" called Vertical "the most closed participant in the market of antenna mast structures". According to the database ''Contour.Focus'', the founders of the company were Innova entertainment with a share of 99% and CEO Vladimir Manokhin with 1%. In 2015, the main owner of the Innova entertainment Georgy Chumburidze announced reporters that he fully controlled "Vertical" and made operational decisions. In June 2017, the company has been funded by the

Baring Vostok Capital Partners Baring Vostok Capital Partners is the largest independent private equity firm focused on investments in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Baring Vostok Private Equity Funds invest across a broad range of industries including ...

investment fund, which provided the company with funds for the development of 4G and 5G network infrastructure and the acquisition of additional assets. The transaction amount and the acquired share were not disclosed; in 2017, a Vertical representative called an investment fund the main shareholder.

Finance

The company does not disclose financial indicators. According to SPARK-Interfax, the revenue of Vertical in 2014 amounted to 88.2 million rubles with a net loss of 88.3 million. Sources of the

RBC News The RBC Group, or RosBiznesConsulting (russian: Группа компаний «РБК» РБК, РосБизнесКонсалтинг), is a Russian media group headquartered in Moscow. It was established in 1993. The company holds an infor ...

, company's estimated revenue in 2015 at 300 million rubles. According to SPARK-Interfax, in 2016, the company received 32.8 million rubles of net profit, with 844.8 million rubles of revenue. In March 2017, the company took a one-time loan of 1.8 billion rubles from

Rosbank Rosbank (Russian: Росбанк) is a Russian universal bank. In October 2020, Rosbank ranked 11th among Russian banks in terms of assets (RUB 1379 billion). According to Forbes Russia, Rosbank was the third most reliable Russian bank in 2021. L ...

. Previously,

Sberbank of Russia PJSC Sberbank (russian: Сбербанк, initially a contraction of russian: сберегательный банк, translit=sberegatelnyy bank, lit=savings bank, link=no) is a Russian majority state-owned banking and financial services compan ...

was the main lender to Vertical, provided a loan of 2 billion rubles.

References

Links

* {{official website, http://www.verticali.ru/ Telecommunications companies of Russia Companies based in Moscow Russian companies established in 2013