OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2010. The Board of Directors of Svyazinvest (hereinafter, the Company), held a meeting in Moscow.

The Board of Directors approved the list of appointees to be voted as members of the Board of Directors of the Company.  The list includes the following persons:

Mikhail R. Butrin, managing director of VTB-Invest;

Sergey A. Drozdov, senior vice president, manager of the proprietary complex of AFK Sistema;

Yury P. Kornev, official secretary, deputy director of the Federal Security Service;

Konstantin V. Malofeev, 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 to 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;

Igor O. Schegolev, Telecommunications Minister;

Evgeny V. Yurchenko, Director General of Svayzinvest. 

The Board of Directors also approved the list of appointees for the Audit Committee, as follows:

Denis N. Afanasiev;

Yulia V. Krasnopolskaya;

Svetlana G. Krzhevskaya;

Alexander V. Narukavnikov;

Kirill A. Stepanenko;

Viktoria G. Chernousova;

Dmitry M. Churin. 

In addition, the Board of Directors adopted a decision to place the following issues on the agenda of the annual general shareholders meeting:

1. To approve the Company’s annual financial statement;

2. To approve the annual accounting reports, including the profit and loss report (profit and loss accounts) of the Company;

3. To approve allocation of the Company’s 2009 profit;

4. On the amount, deadline and form of 2009 dividend payment;

5. On remuneration for work as a member of the Board of Directors (steering council) paid to private employees in the amount specified in the Company’s in-house documents;

6. Election of members of the Board of Directors (steering council) of the Company;

7. Election of members of the Audit Committee (auditor) of the Company;

8. Approval of the auditor of the Company.

Also up for the board’s review was the issue of working out the position for voting by the Company’s representatives at the general shareholders meetings of Rostelecom, CenterTelecom, NWT, VolgaTelecom, UTK, Uralsvyazinform, Sibirtelecom, Far East Telecom, and Dagsvyazinform on the following issues:

on the reorganization of Rostelecom in the form of a merger of Rostelecom and CenterTelecom, North-West Telecom, VolgaTelecom, UTK, Uralsvyazinform, Sibirtelecom, Far East Telecom and Dagsvyazinform;

 on the reorganization of CenterTelecom in the form of a merger of CenterTelecom and Rostelecom;

on the reorganization of NWT in the form of a merger of NWT and Rostelecom;

on the reorganization of VolgaTelecom in the form of a merger of VolgaTelecom and Rostelecom;

on the reorganization of UTK in the form of a merger of UTK and Rostelecom;

on the reorganization of Uralsvyazinform in the form of a merger of Uralsvyazinform and Rostelecom;

on the reorganization of Sibirtelecom in the form of a merger of Sibirtelecom and Rostelecom;

on the reorganization of Far East Telecom in the form of a merger of Far East Telecom and Rostelecom;

on the reorganization of Dagsvyazinform in the form of a merger of Dagsvyazinform and Rostelecom;

The Board of Directors unanimously recommended representatives of the Company to vote FOR the reorganization of the above-mentioned companies during the general shareholders meetings. 

The Board of Directors of the Company also reviewed an analysis of the headline operating and financial indicators of Sibirtelecom.  Addressing the meeting, the company’s general director Ivan Dadykin pointed out that in 2009 the main efforts of the management of Sibirtelecom were focused on strengthening its market positions and raising its operating efficiency. 

Thanks to strict cost cutting, the company managed to improve its operating efficiency compared with 2008, raise EBITDA margin to 36.1% (+5.2%) and overshoot its net profit target by RUR 198 mln.  EBIT also showed slight growth, increasing by 1.3% compared with 2008 for a total of RUR 28 bln, while EBITDA went up 18.3%, reaching RUR 10 bln.  Despite negative foreign economic factors, the company’s net profit climbed 14.3% and amounted to RUR 2.4 bln.

A balanced investment policy and implementation of plans to further boost operating efficiency made it possible to lower Sibirtelecom’s net debt load by 19.4% to RUR 14 bln in 2009.  Free cash flow in 2009 increased by 21 times year-on-year and stood at RUR 4.7 bln.  The company considerably reduced its currency risks, and currently the proportion of hard-currency loans stands at less than 1%.

The management of Sibirtelecom said that the operator’s main tasks in 2010 include rapid expansion of the broadband Internet segment using FTTx technology, rolling out additional datacenters, expanding its geographical footprint and range of services available on the basis of intellectual telecommunications networks.

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

Mikhail R. Butrin, managing director of VTB-Invest;

Sergey A. Drozdov, senior vice president, manager of the proprietary complex of AFK Sistema;

Mikhail A. Leschenko, deputy director general of Svayzinvest;

Konstantin V. Malofeev, 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 to 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.