OREANDA-NEWS. January 11, 2011. “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar”) (LSE: CMST), the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Moscow and 84 Russian cities, with a presence in Ukraine and Armenia, announces that it has increased its stake in the share capital of JSC Regional Technical Centre (“RTC”) to 100% of the common shares, from the previous level of 96.27%. RTC is the leading alternative regional telecommunications operator in Siberia and is part of the Comstar-UTS Group of companies.

The remaining stake in RTC was acquired through the exercise of demand for the buy-out of shares made by Comstar to the minority shareholders of RTC in accordance with the Article 84.8 of the Russian Federal Law on Joint-Stock Companies, for a total cash consideration of RUB 35.22 million.

The transaction is part of the restructuring of Comstar’s regional group of companies under the umbrella of COMSTAR-Regions CJSC, which was created in August 2009 through the merger of the Group’s largest subsidiaries. Comstar-Regions is now the centre for the consolidation of the Group’s regional assets, which include the branches in the Central, North-West, Southern, Volga, Ural and Siberian Federal Districts. All of the Group’s regional subsidiaries will eventually be merged into Comstar-Regions.

Viktor Koresh, Vice President for the Regional Development of Comstar-UTS, commented: “We continue to work towards merging our regional assets and creating one unified regional company, which will allow Comstar to manage its regional assets in a more efficient manner, as well as to engage in the integration with MTS and implement single convergent solutions for all of our assets.”

Regional Technical Centre is the leading alternative operator in the Tyumen region. RTS provides a wide range of services, including digital telephony, zonal, intercity and international communication (as an agent of Comstar-UTS), internet access, and leases channels to subscribers in Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Areas, south of Tyumen region (Tyumen and Tobolsk) and Orenburg region. The company was founded in 2001 as a part of CJSC “Production and Technical Department of Communications”. In November 2007, Comstar acquired a controlling stake in RTC and the company was integrated into JSC Tyumenneftegazsvyaz, a subsidiary of Comstar-UTS, in December 2008.