Moscow and New York (August 28, 2008) - Open Joint Stock Company “Vimpel-Communications” (“VimpelCom” or the “Company”) (NYSE: VIP), a leading provider of telecommunications services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) today announced its financial and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.
Financial and Operating Highlights
• Net operating revenues reached $2,611 million, an increase of 52.1% versus 2Q2007. • OIBDA reached $1,223 million, an increase of 36.3% versus 2Q2007. • OIBDA margin was 46.8%, including 47.3% in Russia and 52.0% in Kazakhstan. • Net income totaled $470 million, an increase of 30.9% versus 2Q2007. • Mobile subscribers increased by 6.0 million versus 2Q2007, reaching 53.7 million. • $2 billion Eurobond issued to refinance short-term bridge loan. • Joint venture agreement signed in Vietnam, license acquired in Cambodia.
Commenting on today’s announcement, 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. “
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