On 5 December 2003, the JSC CenterTelecom top-managers had a meeting with investment companies representatives, leading Russian analysts, and pressmen at the Mariott Grand Hotel (Moscow). The event was dedicated to the first year of the Company's work as an interregional merger entity, i.e. the Central Federal District telecommu-nications operator. Messrs. Ruben Amaryan, CenterTelecom General Director, Boris Antonyuk, RF First Deputy Minister for Communications and Informatization, Vadim Belov, JSC Svyazinvest Deputy General Director and CenterTelecom Board of Directors member, as well as Grigoriy Figner and Alexander Ikonnikov, members of the Board of Directors of JSC CenterTelecom, took part in the meeting.

"Today, one can say with full certainty - CenterTelecom General Director Ruben Amaryan noted in his presentation - that the Company is functioning as one economic mechanism. Thus, the pooling of the regional telecom operators within the framework of the Svyazinvest holding restructuring has been accomplished".

On joining together the basic operators of the 17 regions of the country's Central Federal District, JSC CenterTelecom has become one of the biggest Russian telecommunications companies which annual turnover will make up 20 billion rubles in 2003.

With all the problems and risks of the transition period, the JSC CenterTelecom succeeded in fulfilling one principal obligation: the integration of capital and business was achieved without affecting the smooth telecommunication infrastructures performance in all the 17 Central Federal District constituents. The achievements of the unified regional operators were not only preserved, but also increased, with the development and technical upgrading rates accelerated.

Regarding its technical, financial and economic potential, the Company stands 28th among the 100 biggest heavy-weight enterprises of the national economy of Russia (AK&M, 2003). In terms of the sales volume, CenterTelecom is the 4th among the telecommunications companies, following Rostelecom, MTS, and VympelCom.

A testimony to the trust put in JSC CenterTelecom is the fact that in the face of the adverse market opportunities in September 2003, the Company placed successfully its third 2 billion rubles' bonded loan. In the investors' community, CenterTelecom gave a display of being an open market company with its shares actively quoted at the trading floors of the Russian stock market.

Mr. Dmitriy Volkov, Director of the inside debt capital market Department of MDM-Bank that took the floor at the presentation, stressed that JSC CenterTelecom took currently the bonded-loan-attraction leadership among the Svyazinvest holding companies in the internal capital market, and became one of the major players in the domestic bond market as a whole. The explanation to this is, first and foremost, high professionalism of the Company's managers.

"Aside from the substantial monetary funds, the Company acquired an invaluable reputational capital. From the very start of the bonds issuing program, it has never delayed either coupon, or offer payments, and has timely repaid the first loan", Mr. Volkov noted. "Such reliable-partner reputation will enable the Company to further successfully obtain loans both in the domestic and overseas capital markets".

The Company's operating results for the nine months of 2003 bear evidence of a stable growth of both performance as well as financial and economic indicators. According to the forecasts, the total sales proceeds will currently be to the tune of 20.8 billion rubles, constituting a 27% excess as against the 2002 comparable indicator. The net profit is expected to be abreast of 1.5 billion rubles, or 138.6% as against the last year's profit amount. The increment of the new services sales proceeds - half as much again - is particularly tangible.

According to Mr. Konstantin Chernyshov, chief of the FK NIKoil Functional Analytic Survey Division, the component parts of the JSC CenterTelecom last year's successful operation were the Company's proficient pooling of the share capitals of the 17 constituent telecommunications operators, significant positive steps made to organize corporate management, and competent strategy and tactics for the implementation of the investment program.

The leadership of the telecommunications industry sector, of the Svyazinvest holding and interregional Joint Stock Central Telecommu-nications Company answered the pressmen's questions concerning the CenterTelecom business development and prospects for operating in the telecommunications market.