OREANDA-NEWS. March 2, 2010. “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar” or “the Group”) (LSE: CMST), the largest integrated telecommunications service provider in Moscow and 69 Russian cities, announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Comstar-Regions has completed the cash acquisitions of the outstanding 20% minority stake in Yekaterinburg-based cable-TV and communications operator EuroTel LLC and a 25% minority stake in ‘Management and Leasing’ LLC, which owns  communication infrastructure in Yekaterinburg. Comstar now owns 100% of the issued share capital in both companies. The total cash consideration for the two related acquisitions is RUB 100 million (USD  3.33 million[1]).

EuroTel is a leading cable-TV provider in Yekaterinburg with a 54% market share, and also offers high-speed internet access and fixed-line telephony services. The company has a 7% share of the Yekaterinburg broadband market. As at the end of 2009, EuroTel had approximately 164 thousand cable-TV subscribers, which included over 159 thousand cable-TV customers, and the company has a proprietary 373 km fibre-optic network.

Viktor Koresh, Vice-President for Regional Development of Comstar-UTS, commented: “The acquisition of the remaining shares in these Yekaterinburg companies is the next step in our strategy to reorganise our Russian regional subsidiaries under Comstar-Regions. We remain committed to the reorganisation and to our goal of creating a single company, which will ensure efficient management of all of our regional assets.”

[1] Bank of Russia’s USD -RUB exchange rate as at February 25, 2010