OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2010. The Board of Directors of Svyazinvest (hereinafter, the Company) held a regular meeting on January 26, 2009.

The Board of Director of the Company presented an analysis of the main operating trends of UTK, a subsidiary of Svyazinvest.  Addressing the meeting, the Director General of the Company Alexander Shipulin pointed out that in 2010 the main focus of the management of UTK will be to maintain its market positions and raise operating efficiency. Thanks to strict cost control, the company managed in 2009 to bolster its operating efficiency compared with 2008, raise the EBITDA margin to 40% (+8.4%) and overfulfill its net profit target.

In addition, the Company has worked hard to achieve sufficient liquidity by reducing its debt load and lowering currency risks.  In 2009, UTK’s total debt decreased by RUR 4.3 bln to RUR 24.9 bln, while paid debt went down by RUR 3.5 bln and stood at RUR 20 bln.

The management of UTK sees as its main challenges in 2010 rapid expansion of the broadband Internet segment, introduction of IPTV in all parts of its coverage area, further improvement of its operating efficiency, stronger labor efficiency, and higher average salary.

The board also reviewed other issues concerning the Company’s in-house activities.

The Company’s Board of Directors meeting was attended by the following persons:

• Sergey A. Drozdov, senior vice-president, head of the proprietary

complex of AFK Sistema;

• Mikhail Alexandrovich Leschenko, deputy general director of Svyazinvest;

• Konstantin V. Malofeyev, managing partner of direct investment fund

Marshall Capital Partners;

• Marlen J. Manasov, member of the board of directors of UBS Bank;

• Sergey V. Pridantsev, president of Comstar-UTS;

• Leonid D. Reiman, advisor of the President of the Russian Federation;

• Ivan I. Rodionov, professor of state university Higher School of Economics;

• Nikita D. Ryauzov, managing director of MDM-Bank.