BloggingStocks

Best Stocks for 2008: Mobile TeleSystems (MBT) rings up Eastern Europe

Posted Dec 24th 2007 2:15PM by Steven Halpern
Filed under: International markets, Russia, Newsletters, Eastern Europe, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite conservative pick for 2008 is Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT), the largest cellular operator in Eastern Europe, with 50 million subscribers," says Yiannis Mostrous in The Silk Road Investor.

"The company has licenses in 87 Russian regions, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, covering a population of more than 233 million people. Russia accounts for almost 80% of consolidated revenue, while Ukraine is the second largest contributor.

"This is a company that offers good exposure to Russia's domestic demand growth. Russia is currently in a sweet spot: It's a net oil exporter, has good GDP growth, isn't dependent on foreign capital flows, is relatively stable politically, boasts reasonable market valuations and, above all, enjoys solid exposure to the biggest growth story of our time, Asia.

"Mobile Telesystems will continue to experience strong growth given the regional economic strength. Its valuations are still reasonable and it actually trades at a discount to a lot of its peers in the emerging market universe. This should make it a stock to own going into what is shaping up to be an uncertain New Year.

"The company's investments in its various markets have started producing positive results and it also continues to consolidate operations while taking advantage of market growth. Buy Mobile TeleSystems up to $110."

Tags: best stocks 2008, eastern europe stocks, foreign telecom stocks, global telecom stocks, mbt, mobile telesystems, MobileTelesystems, russia, russia stocks, RussiaStocks, silk road investor, telecom stocks, top stocks 2008, wireless stocks, yiannis mostrous

All contents copyright © 2003-2008, Weblogs, Inc. All rights reserved

BloggingStocks is a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network. Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Notify AOL