Russia's MTS says priced out of emerging markets

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's largest cellphone operator, MTS (MBT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), says soaring emerging markets have priced it out of potential acquisitions.

"A big number of companies have set as top priority their willingness to be a global player," Chief Executive Mikhail Shamolin said in an interview at the second Reuters Russia Investment Summit.

"Such ambitions have inflated prices in emerging markets to unrealistic heights -- $1,000 per subscriber and more," Shamolin said at the event, held at the Reuters office in Moscow.

"As many cases as we have studied, we do not see how we could justify such investments from a financial point of view."

MTS, or Mobile TeleSystems, operates in Russia as well as the former Soviet states of Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

It has more than 90 million subscribers.

"However, we are constantly looking at various assets and countries," he said.

"If assets abroad in those geographies which are attractive for us become cheaper, it will create certain opportunities."

MTS (MTSI.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), controlled by services conglomerate Sistema (SSAq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has a market value of $25 billion.

Revenues rose to $8.25 billion last year from $6.38 billion in 2006.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Jason Neely)