OREANDA-NEWS. September 21, 2009.  The number of Russia’s mobile phone subscribers was up 1% MoM in August, reaching 201.9m SIM cards, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE FC.

The level of penetration grew 1.4% MoM to 139%. MegaFon’s total subscriber base climbed 2.1% in August (MoM), making it the sector’s top performer for a fourth consecutive month. Vimpelcom took second place as its user base advanced 0.9% MoM, while MTS’12-month churning policy led to its most sluggish growth rate for the past five months (+0.5% MoM).

View: Overall, month-on-month growth in Russia’s subscriber base stabilized at 1% in July-August, approaching the pre-crisis level of 1.2%. Due to its faster user base growth, Megafon has gained market share, rising to 23.4% (August 2009), while Vimpelcom’s market share has been retreating since May (down to 25.2%). MTS’s share of the Russian market has decreased slightly, dipping to 33.8%.

Valuation: Vimpelcom trades at a 2009E EV/EBITDA of 6.9x, while the corresponding figure for MTS is 6.1x.

Action: We view the August subscriber statistics as neutral for both MTS and Vimpelcom.