OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2008. The former General Director of OAO “Farlep Invest” Stan Abbeloos is leaving the Company as his Contract has expired. The Supervisory Board appointed Yuriy Chuikov the acting General Director of OAO Farlep Invest, starting March 27, 2008, reported the press-centre of SCM.

Yuriy Chuikov will head the management team for the consolidated telecommunication group “Farlep Optima Telecom”.

“I am absolutely sure that Yuriy Chuikov has everything he needs to implement the development strategy of SCM Group telecommunication business: an excellent management team, necessary expertise in the field of advanced technologies and work experience at the Ukrainian market”, said the Director of business development of SCM Ilya Arkhipov. – “The key objective of the Farlep-Optima Telecom Group is to strengthen our telecommunication business by implementing new technologies and expanding the geography of our business and putting more marketing efforts into it. I am confident that all the projected plans and projects required for reaching the set goals and objectives will be realized in full volume”.

The approved development strategy of SCM Group telecommunication business suggests further work on consolidation of telecommunication assets of SCM within the framework of Farlep Optima Telecom Holding with OAO Farlep Invest being the managing company of Farlep Optima Telecom Holding. The key focus will be on improvement of telecommunication group efficiency, expansion of market segments and the range of products and services.

“I totally support the development strategy of telecommunication business of Farlep Optima Telecom Holding and I will make all the efforts to continue its consistent implementation”, noted the acting General Director of OAO Farlep Invest Yuriy Chuikov.

The Supervisory Board thanked Stan Abbeloos for his work and highly appreciated his performance at the position of the General Director of OAO Farlep Invest. It was during his tenure that the consolidation of telecommunication assets of SCM Group within the framework of Farlep Optima Telecom Group was started, as well as formation of a contemporary corporate governance structure and a professional management team for the company.

Short profile:
Farlep-Optima Telecom Group is Ukraine's largest private fixed line operator, with market share of over 8%.The Group was established in late 2005 after acquisition and further consolidation of Optima Telecom and Farlep. Farlep-Optima Telecom belongs to SCM Group.

OAO Farlep-Invest is the managing company of Farlep - Optima Telecom telecommunication provider including subsidiaries, branches, affiliates, among them Optima Telecom, Vilcom, Matrix and Ucomline, a long distance and local line provider.

Along with fixed long distance/local line services, Group companies provide a wide range of data transmission and Internet access services.

OAO Farlep-Invest is 99.88% owned by SCM (System Capital Management) Limited (Cyprus). Farlep-Invest belongs to Farlep-Optima Telecommunication Group.

ZAO System Capital Management is the biggest private investor for Ukraine's economy.

SCM is a professional investor that owns and controls assets in mining and metals, energy-generating, telecommunication, banking, insurance, media industries as well as in retail and real estate.

In particular, SCM Group includes industrial holdings Metinvest, DTEK, Farlep-Optima Telecom, SCM Finance, Syegodnya Multimedia, TRK Ukraina, ESTA Holding, Ukrainskyi Retail, and others.

SCM is 90% owned by businessman Rinat Akhmetov.

Yuriy B. Chuikov was born on March 30, 1958 in Kyiv.

In 1981 he graduated from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Engineering and Physical Faculty; from 1993 to 1997 he took five training courses on management, marketing and sales in communications in KPN Telecom (the Netherlands); in 1996 he earned MBA on “General and strategic management” in American University (USA) and Maastricht School of Management (the Netherlands).

He started his career in telecommunications in 1992 as the Commercial Director of PO Kievelectrosvyaz and then he worked at JV “UMC”. Later he occupied senior positions at JV “Telesystems of Ukraine”, Golden Telecom GSM, Golden Telecom LLC Ukraine, “Ukraine’s latest technologies”, LLC. Since November 2007 he has been the General Director of “MMDS-Ukraina”, LLC.

In 2007 he was given the rank “Honorable Telecommunications Worker of Ukraine”.