OREANDA-NEWS. August 30, 2007. CenterTelecom has paid out dividends of Rub 0.3893300 on its registered non-documentary class A preferred shares for 2006.

Dividend payouts totaled Rub 190,272,210 or 92.9% of the dividends payable on CenterTelecom’s preferred shares. All in all, a total of Rub 204,784,790 was allocated to 2006 dividends on class A shares.

Obligations to pay out dividends on this category of the operator’s equities were fulfilled in full, except for cases when the company is not held liable in accordance with Article 44 of the Federal Law “On Joint Stock Companies” and the Statute “On the Dividend Policy”, which was approved by CenterTelecom’s BoD on June 10, 2004, i.e.:

- the failure by shareholders to appear at the company’s cash office to pick up dividends;

- questionnaires of the company’s shareholders lack or include wrong banking details for the transfer of dividend payouts.

The funds for payout of preferred dividends were reserved by CenterTelecom in full.

This August North West Telecom successfully wrapped up a deal to raise a $100 mln syndicated loan that was extended by UniCredit Group which was represented by International Moscow Bank and Austria Creditanstalt AG.

The credit facility is unsecured and is to be provided in two tranches on the following terms:

Tranche A of $50 mln is to be repaid in 3 years at LIBOR + 0.95% interest,

Tranche B equaling $50 mln is to be paid back in five years at LIBOR + 1.25% interest.

The transaction was closed with substantial oversubscription. The total amount of applications came to $170 mln and 12 banks formed a syndicate. The funds raised will go towards financing the company’s investment program and refinancing its short-term obligations.

North West Telecom’s deputy general director and director for economy and finance Venera Khusnutdinova pointed out that “her company is satisfied with the loan syndication results. North West Telecom has tapped financial resources on the best terms in its corporate history and despite the shaky environment on international capital markets the deal has aroused keen interest on the part of a wide group of creditors, thereby confirming the company’s sterling reputation and strong creditworthiness.