Moscow, March 3, 2008 - OAO RBC Information Systems (RTS, MICEX: RBCI) announces that it has completed the acquisition of a 50% stake in the Rostov-on-Don-based television station Yuzhny Region and launched the local issue of its newspaper RBC Daily in the South of Russia. RBC is also preparing to set up a website dedicated to the region's economic development. The total amount of investments into the three projects is anticipated to reach around $8m.

The Yuzhny Region TV channel has a license to broadcast in Rostov-on-Don reaching over 1.5m people. In line with the channel's newly adopted editorial policy, it will continue broadcasting RBC TV programming adding local news blocks to the schedule. This move will give RBC TV viewers in Rostov-on-Don access to a news and research resource providing 24/7 coverage of global and national business and financial events, as well as keeping track of local developments.

In addition to this, in late 2007 RBC released the first local issue of its newspaper RBC Daily in Rostov-on-Don and the region. From April 2008, the newspaper will also be distributed throughout the Krasnodar region, and it will be available in the Stavropol region from September 2008. RBC management expects that the expansion of business geography will have a positive impact on the rise of the overall audience of the company's business media, and local news coverage will enlarge RBC's core audience.

"We are consistently expanding RBC's presence in Russia's most promising regions. Today we are witnessing unprecedented growth here, involving the banking, agriculture and retail sectors. The number of people involved in local businesses is increasing, and this is the audience we are targeting, including in southern regions. We believe that the launch of regional mass media will help our media projects capture a wider target audience, as well as will enable us to add more local advertisers to our client base," said Artyom Inutin, General Director of RBC Media.

"Since business is developing dynamically in the Southern Federal District and more big Russian and foreign companies have entered the region lured by the Olympics which are to be held here, we have expanded our cooperation with one of Russia's largest media holdings, RBC. The advent of companies of such a level to our media market will no doubt encourage further economic and business growth in southern Russia," commented on the deal Georgy Kudinov, President of Yuzhny Region Media Group.