Today OJSC Uralsvyazinform placed its corporate bond in the form of a coupon interest-yielding payable to bearer security on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange with a nominal value of Rub 1,000,000,000 and an annual interest yield of 17.5 percent, with interest payable every 90 days and a term to maturity of 1,080 days following the date of placement.  

The placement price was 99.18 percent of the nominal value of the bond.  The annual yield to profit was fixed at 19.1 percent.  The annual yield rate at the fist offer was 19.75 percent (using the complex percentage formula).  

The arrangers of the placement are the investment and brokerage group Renaissance Capital and Web Invest Bank.  The members of the bond syndicate are MDM Bank, Moscow International Bank and Ingosstrakh Soyuz.  OJSC Svyazinvest will be acting as project coordinator.  

The entire issue was distributed on the first day of placement, on August 22, 2002.  The bond was snapped up by a wide circle of investors, including Moscow and regional banks, insurance companies and investment funds.  All funds raised are to be allocated to finance the most profitable telecommunications projects, including cellular and long-distance traffic.  

OJSC Uralsvyazinform (www.uralsviazinform.ru) is the largest telecom operator in the Urals region.  The company provides local, long-distance and international cellular and paging services, as well as data transmission, including Internet connection, radio and television broadcasting.  

OJSC Uralsvyazinform plays a pivotal role in the process of consolidating telecom operators in the Urals region and western Siberia.  Six operators are slated to merge with OJSC Uralsvyazinform by the end of 2002, such as OJSC Uraltelecom Sverdlovsk region, OJSC Svyazinform Chelyabinsk region, OJSC Tyumentelecom, OJSC Khantymansiiskokrtelecom, OJSC Yamalelektrosvyaz and OJSC Elektrosvyaz Kurgan region.  

The major shareholder of OJSC Uralsvyazinform is state holding OJSC Svyazinvest (53 percent).  The company's shares are actively traded on the RTS, MICEX, Berlin and Frankfurt stock markets, NEWEX and the over-the-counter US market.  

Renaissance Capital (www.rencap.com) is a leading brokerage which operates on the Moscow market servicing both domestic and foreign clients.  Since the company began doing business in 1995 it has raised over $US 6 bn in investments and carried out numerous large-scale projects.  Renaissance Capital group acted as the arranger for the issue and placement of RIKB BashKreditBank bonds (2001), the lead arranger in the issue and placement of bonds of the Republic of Bashkortostan (2001 and 2002) and the joint arranger for the issue and placement of OOO Russian Standard - Finance bonds. The business magazine Euromoney recognized Renaissance Capital as "the best investment group on the fixed income market in Russia".  

Web Invest Bank (www.web-invest.ru) specializes in arranging bond issues of Russian corporations and regional constituents of the Russian Federation.  The bank is a leading operator servicing Russian investors on the bond market and in the sphere of Internet trading.  Web Invest Bank acted as the arranger for a bond issued by the Leningrad region (2001) and the underwriter for a bond issued by the Republic of Komi (2002), is the market maker for a bond issued by OJSC Aeroflot Russian Airlines (2002).  In April 2002 Web Invest Bank was recognized by the National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR) as the best new company of 2001.