VIMPELCOM NET PROFIT RISES 31PCT 2Q 2008

TASHKENT, Sep 01, 2008 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- VIP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The net profit of Vimpel-Communications (VimpelCom) open joint-stock company, a leading provider of wireless telecommunications services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), grew 30.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2008 to $470 million, the company said Thursday.

Net operating revenue rose by 52.1% year-on-year to US$2.61 billion in the second quarter of 2008, the company's statement said. The Operating Income Before Depreciation And Amortization (OIBDA) reached US$1.223 billion, an increase of 36.3% versus 2Q2007.

The OIBDA margin was 46.8%, including 47.3% in Russia and 52.0% in Kazakhstan.

Mobile subscribers increased by 6.0 million year-on-year and reached 53.7 million.

Alexander Izosimov, Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom, said: "We are pleased with our robust second quarter results. The company showed solid 52% annual revenue growth with a healthy 47% OIBDA margin, which is in line with our internal target for this stage of the integration of Golden Telecom.

"The increase in revenue was driven by fast organic growth in both our mobile and fixed-line operations as well as by the first full quarter consolidation of Golden Telecom.

"In the second quarter, we successfully refinanced our short-term debt related to the Golden Telecom acquisition. Following the refinancing, we started to intensify our sales and marketing efforts in the Russian mobile segment, resulting in 11% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth in this segment.

"We are also very happy with our performance in the CIS, where we showed strong growth and increased revenue market share and ARPU in all geographies.

"We will continue to focus our efforts along three key priorities for the Company: Developing integrated operations in Russia, including a strong push in the broadband business, continued development in the CIS markets and expansion outside of the CIS.

"These priorities prompted us to make some adjustments to our organizational structure which we believe will enhance the focus and efficiency of our business."

The company, which operates under the Beeline brand, provides services in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia.

VimpelCom's main shareholders are Altimo, the telecoms arm of Russia's Alfa Group, (44% of voting shares) and Norway's Telenor (29.9% of voting shares).

(UzReport.com)

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