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About the company MTS

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MTS is one of Russia's largest mobile operators and the centre of a group that includes a bank, media services, an advertising business and a cloud platform. The company long ago stopped being just an operator and is building a set of services around the subscriber. Its shares trade on the Moscow Exchange under the ticker MTSS.

What the company does

The core of revenue is what subscribers pay for voice and internet access. This is highly predictable income: people pay every month regardless of where the economy is in the cycle, and that is exactly why telecoms are traditionally regarded as a defensive sector. But stability comes at a price — the market is saturated: almost everyone already has a SIM card, and the only ways to grow are to raise prices or to sell the subscriber something else.

Hence the second part of the model — services built around connectivity: a bank, a media subscription, advertising, cloud services for business. They grow faster than connectivity and are gradually increasing their share of the group's results.

The cost side has its own specifics: the network requires constant investment — new equipment, spectrum, maintaining coverage. This spending is not discretionary; it is dictated by the technology cycle, which is why an operator's free cash flow is always lower than its profit on paper.

Business lines

  • Telecom services

    Mobile and fixed-line communications, home internet and television.

  • Financial services

    The group's bank: cards, loans, deposits, merchant acquiring.

  • Media and entertainment

    An online cinema, a music service, ticketing platforms.

  • Digital solutions for business

    Cloud services, the internet of things, advertising technology.

History

  1. 1993The mobile communications company is founded — one of the first in the country.
  2. 2000Listing of the shares on a US stock exchange.
  3. 2000-еExpansion into Russia's regions and neighbouring countries, construction of next-generation networks.
  4. 2010-еA pivot from an operator to a group of services: the acquisition of a bank, the launch of media and cloud businesses.
  5. 2020-еSpinning off individual business lines into standalone businesses in order to unlock their value later.

Business review

Strengths and weaknesses describe the business itself. Opportunities and threats describe what may happen around it.

Strengths

  • Predictable cash flow from the subscriber base.
  • A traditionally generous dividend policy.
  • The additional business lines, above all the bank, are growing faster than connectivity.

Weaknesses

  • High debt: when money is expensive, interest eats up a significant part of profit.
  • The telecom market is saturated, and tariffs are kept in check by the scrutiny of the antimonopoly service.
  • Mandatory investment in equipment and data storage while access to hardware is limited.

Opportunities

  • Services built around connectivity grow faster than connectivity itself and raise revenue per subscriber.
  • Spinning off individual business lines into standalone companies can unlock their value.
  • Business demand for cloud services and data processing is growing steadily.
  • The network infrastructure is already built — additional traffic costs less to carry than the first.

Threats

  • The telecom market is saturated: the subscriber base is barely growing, and competition for subscribers is on price.
  • Tariffs are under the scrutiny of the regulator and the antimonopoly service.
  • The debt burden becomes more expensive when interest rates are high, while investment in the network cannot be postponed.
  • Sanctions restrict supplies of telecommunications equipment.

Frequently asked questions

What does MTS do?

The company provides mobile and fixed-line communications, internet and television, and is also developing a bank, media services, advertising technology and cloud solutions for business.

Why are telecoms considered a defensive sector?

Because the subscription fee is one of the last expenses people give up: connectivity is needed regardless of the state of the economy. An operator's revenue therefore fluctuates far less than that of commodity companies.

Why does the operator carry a heavy debt burden?

Building and upgrading a network requires large investments long before they pay off, and such programmes are usually financed with debt. When interest rates are high, servicing it takes a noticeable bite out of profit.

Does MTS pay dividends?

The company has traditionally been one of the dividend stocks of the Russian market and adheres to its announced payout policy. Current amounts and record dates are in the dividends section of the company page.

Information as of 20 August 2026

Business description and risk factors. Not investment advice.

Issuer profile

What the company does

The company is classified under the «Telecom» sector, using the taxonomy we apply when comparing securities with one another.

The same sector holds 5 issuers on the platform, and their figures are computed by one method — so this company's revenue, profit and leverage can be compared with them directly.

The company is registered in Russia and identified in regulatory disclosure by tax number 7740000076. That number locates its statements in state registries regardless of how its name is spelled — and the spelling differs even between official documents.

Listed securities

The issuer has 28 securities listed: 1 share class, 27 bond issues. All are shown on this page, including those trading in different modes and different currencies.

Across Moscow Exchange quotation list levels the securities split as follows: 27 at level 1, 1 at level 3. The level reflects how strict the disclosure, turnover and track-record requirements the issue meets are — not how attractive the investment is.

Bond issues

The nearest issue matures on 5 November 2026 and the farthest on 15 April 2038. That spread means the issuer borrows both short and long, and the yields of these issues will differ for the simple reason that the money is lent for different terms.

The largest issue by face value is RU000A0JWRV9, with a face value of 1,000.00 ₽ per bond, maturing on 15 August 2031. Bond prices in the order book are quoted as a percentage of face value, so a quote of 98.4 means 98.4 % of that amount rather than an absolute price.

Dividend history

Between 2018 and 2025 the issuer made 13 payouts whose record date has already passed. A board recommendation or a forecast does not enter this history, because no money has been paid on them yet.

The most recent payout was 35.00 ₽ per security with a record date of 7 July 2025. That is the amount before tax: the broker withholds it on crediting, so less arrives in the account.

Financial statements

The most recent annual report we hold is for 2026 under RAS. The standard is named for a reason: IFRS and RAS compute the same quantities by different rules, disagree by design and are never averaged.

Revenue for 2026 was 122.90B ₽.

That is 74.2 % less than in 2025, when revenue was 476.84B ₽. The comparison stays within one reporting standard — otherwise the decline could turn out to be a change of accounting rules and nothing more.

Net income for 2026 was 1.94B ₽.

Of every unit of revenue, 1.6 % remained as net income. This is the ratio of two figures already named above rather than a separate line from the report: comparing it across companies is meaningful only within one sector and one reporting standard.

Equity stands at 129.30B ₽ against total assets of 1.50T ₽. The difference between the two is the company's liabilities, and the larger it is relative to equity, the more the business depends on borrowed money.

This section is assembled from our own data on the company's securities, dividends and financial statements. It is a description, not a recommendation.

Securities of this issuer

Shares1

Bonds27