International Business

Russia Insists Telecom Deal Off: The deal under which state-controlled Italian holding company Stet was to take a quarter of Russian telecommunications company Svyazinvest is definitely off, the Russian Privatization Center said. However, a Stet spokeswoman in Rome said the deal was not dead. Officials of the Russian agency were unavailable for comment. Earlier this month, Stet won a tender for 25% plus 1 share in Svyazinvest in what was Russia’s biggest privatization deal and foreign investment to date. Stet bid $630 million for the stake. Stet beat off a consortium of France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and a Russian unit of US West in the tender.