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Russia’s Vimpelcom completes merger with Golden (Russia)

  • February 29th, 2008
  • 2:15 pm

Russia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, Vimpelcom, said on Friday it had completed a $4.3 billion merger with fixed-line operator Golden Telecom.

Vimpelcom, which offered to buy 100 percent of Golden Telecom (GT) in December last year for $105 per share, said in a statement that GT became its indirect wholly owned subsidiary upon completion of the merger.

Golden Telecom common stock ceased trading on Nasdaq at market close on Feb. 28, Vimpelcom said. Both Vimpelcom and GT had Norwegian group Telenor and Altimo, the investment vehicle of Russia’s Alfa Group, as strategic shareholders.

   

 

 

 
 

Rostelecom cuts charges in the face of competition (Russia)

  • February 11th, 2008
  • 1:32 pm

The Russian long-distance operator Rostelecom has cut its call charges in the face of increasing competition. The former long-distance monopoly says prices could fall by as much as 30% for daytime inter-city calls, while regular customers in Moscow could even see reductions of up to 50% for calls from the capital to the regions, according to a report from the St Petersburg Times. ‘The reduction in the rate was made possible because of structural changes in the cost of international calls, Rostelecom chief executive Konstantin Solodukhin said in a statement. Rival firms such as Golden Telecom, MTT, Transtelecom and Synterra are slowly beginning to eat away at Rostelecom’s market share, while VoIP telephony services are also hitting long-distance traffic.

   

 

Golden Telecom buys regional telco (Russia)

  • December 19th, 2007
  • 7:27 am

Fixed line operator Golden Telecom has increased its presence in southern Russia through the acquisition of New Telecom Technologies (NTT), a business services provider based in the city of Krasnodar. ‘Southern Russia is one of the strategic areas for Golden Telecom. The acquisition of NTT will increase the efficiency of our operations and expand network capabilities while providing superior services to our customers,’ Golden Telecom’s CEO, Jean-Pierre Vandromme, said in a statement. Golden Telecom is currently in negotiations with Russia’s second largest cellular operator, Vimpelcom, with the cellco having made a USD4.2 billion takeover for its wireline sister company; both firms have Alfa Group and Telenor as major shareholders.

   

 

VimpelCom makes bid for Golden Telecom (Russia)

  • November 27th, 2007
  • 2:49 pm

Russian mobile operator group VimpelCom has offered USD 100 per share for fixed-line operator Golden Telecom, Reuters writes citing a source familiar with the talks. The USD 100 per share is VimpelCom’s final offer, the source said. VimpelCom’s majority shareholders Alfa and Telenor also own stakes in Golden Telecom. Golden’s shares recently traded at just over USD 100.

   

BT’s Golden handshake (UK)

  • October 26th, 2007
  • 2:54 pm

The UK’s BT and Russia’s Golden Telecom have signed a partnership agreement under which the British firm will have access to Golden Telecom’s backbone network, enabling the London-based carrier to significantly expand the reach of its advanced communications services in Russia and other CIS countries. Accordingly, Golden Telecom’s customers will obtain access to BT’s international IP network. ‘This agreement is a great example of beneficial cooperation between our two companies. By using Golden Telecom’s extensive backbone network we can extend services to our clients across all of Russia, enabling them to develop their businesses in the region,’ said Richard van Wageningen, CEO of BT Russia & CIS. BT currently serves more than 250 corporate customers in the region.

   

 

Golden, Corbina add 65,000 broadband subs in Q3 (Russia)

  • October 12th, 2007
  • 12:20 pm

In the last three months, Russian communications company Golden Telecom and subsidiary Corbina Telecom have added almost 65,000 broadband subscribers in Moscow. The companies added 184,600 subscribers in 2007 in total, increasing the number to 299,600 by the end of September. Golden Telecom acquired Corbina Telecom in May this year and together the companies plan to roll-out FTTB networks in 65 cities in Russia under the ‘Triple65′ project. By the end of 2007 the FTBB network will cover 11.6 households with a total population of 34.9 million people in 24 cities, Golden Telecom says. In Q2, Golden Telecom launched it IPTV services which are currently available to Corbina’s Moscow broadband subscribers. In the next 6 months, the services will be available in more than 20 regions. Corbina Telecom’s general director Alexander Malis expects that about 25 to 30 percent of FTTB customers will subscribe to IPTV services by 2009.

   

Golden expands triple-play capabilities (Russia)

  • October 1st, 2007
  • 9:58 am

Technology provider Alcatel-Lucent has announced the successful implementation of a series of upgrades to expand Golden Telecom’s broadband network capacity and triple-play capabilities, to support a wide range of multimedia and convergent services including high-speed internet access, VoIP, video delivery and other data services. Under the terms of a series of contracts signed in the second quarter of 2007, Alcatel-Lucent has supplied the following equipment from its broadband access portfolio: the 7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM), the 7330 ISAM Fibre-to-the-Node and the 7324 Remote Unit with a total capacity of up to 33,000 DSL lines, as well as an upgrade of Golden’s existing management system with the 5523 ADSL Work Station (AWS) to manage DSL network elements.

   

 

 

Golden mines profit(Russia)

  • August 10th, 2007
  • 2:11 pm

Golden Telecom’s net profit grew 20% year-on-year to USD49 million under US GAAP standards in H1 2007, on revenues that rose 47.5% to USD553.6 million. Operating profit at the Russian full-service operator reached USD77.3 million, 24.4% higher than in the first six months of 2006 , with EBITDA rising 34% to USD148.7 million. In Q2 2007, net profit increased 46% year-on-year to USD33 million, with quarterly revenues amounting to USD297.9 million, up 51% from 2Q06. Second quarter operating profit rose 55% y-o-y to USD47.6 million.

   

 

Golden Telecom raises FY outlook(Russia)

  • August 10th, 2007
  • 1:12 pm

Russian operator Golden Telecom has increased its outlook for the full year after a strong set of second-quarter results. It now expects annual revenues to show growth in in the mid-40s, versus a previous estimate of 35-40 percent, while the EBITDA growth outlook rises to around 40 percent from 30-35 percent previously. For 2008, Golden predicts revenue growth of around 35 percent and EBITDA up in the mid-40s. In the second quarter, revenues rose 51 percent year-on-year and net profit was up 46 percent.

   

End in sight for Alfa-Telenor disputes?

  • August 2nd, 2007
  • 3:34 pm

The Kremlin is supporting a deal that could resolve a long-running dispute between conglomerate Alfa Group’s telecoms arm, Altimo, and Norwegian telco Telenor, reports the Moscow Times quoting a source inside Alfa familiar with the negotiations. The deal would see the two firms merge their assets across a range of telecom interests in Russia and eastern Europe, including their stakes in Kyivstar, Vimpelcom, Golden Telecom and MegaFon. The wrangling between Altimo and Telenor has played out in the boardroom of Russian cellco Vimpelcom, in which both firms hold stakes (Altimo 44%, Telenor 30%). In 2005, Altimo sparked hostilities by expanding Vimpelcom into Ukraine by taking over Ukrainian Radio Systems, a competitor to Telenor-controlled Ukrainian market leader Kyivstar, in which Alfa also holds a minority interest. Kirill Babayev, Altimo’s vice president for public relations, did not confirm that a deal would be reached but said yesterday that his company was ‘interested in reaching an agreement with Telenor on all the disputed matters.’ Telenor’s vice president for communications, Dag Melgaard, did not rule out a settlement with Altimo, but stressed that the aim had to be a split of business interests. ‘We would be happy to resolve the dispute…but at the end there must be a separation between us,’ he told the Moscow Times. He added Telenor was still involved in arbitration lawsuits against Altimo in Geneva and New York, and added, ‘Altimo cannot be trusted, because they have been signing agreements and walking away from them.’