Betalink goes bankrupt

2009-03-25



The mobile phone retailer Betalink has filed for bankruptcy. Debts, estimated at $190m, together with a broken agreement with MTS and a drop in consumer demand during the recession, have resulted in the collapse of the company. In 2008 Betalink’s turnover was RUB 9.7bn ($277.3m) and the company operated 650 outlets.
The retailer was forced to cut costs by closing down some of these outlets and has been unable to pay employee salaries since last year.
Mobile phone network operators began acquiring independent retailers last autumn, as debts in the retail sector rose and business profitability fell. The first retailer to be sold to a mobile network operator was Euroset (5,100 outlets), which was acquired by Vimpelcom. Recently, Megafon received permission from the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to acquire Tsifrograd (1,500 stores).