MOSCOW--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar” or “the Group”) (LSE: CMST.L), the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Moscow and 69 Russian cities, today announced the decisions made at the Annual General Meeting of its shareholders (“AGM”) on June 30, 2009.
The AGM approved an annual dividend of approximately RUR 90.3 million, or approximately US$ 2.91 million, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008, to be paid to holders of Comstar’s shares as at the record date of May 22, 2009. The dividend represents approximately 2% of Comstar’s consolidated net income for 2008 under US GAAP2. The dividend, which amounts to a payment of RUR 0.22 per ordinary share, or approximately US$ 0.007 per Global Depositary Receipt (“GDR”), is due to be paid within 60 days of today’s AGM approval.
The shareholders also approved the election of the members of the Board
of Directors as follows:
1. Anton Abugov – First Vice President,
Head of Strategy and Development Functional Division, Sistema;
2.
Sergey Drozdov – Senior Vice President, Head of Property Functional
Division, Sistema;
3. Anna Goldin – Vice President, Head of Legal
Functional Division, Sistema;
4. Thomas Holtrop – Member of the
Board of Directors, Gruner and Jahr;
5. Sergey Ivanov – Director of
Strategy Department of Telecommunications Business Unit, Sistema;
6.
Sergey Pridantsev – President and Chief Executive Officer, Comstar;
7.
Yngve Redling – Chairman of the Swedish-Russian bilateral working group
for Information Technology; Chairman, Swedish-Russian/ CIS Chamber of
Commerce;
8. Ron Sommer – Member of the Board of Directors, First
Vice President, Head of Telecommunications Business Unit, Sistema;
9.
Dmitry Ustinov – Head of Financial Department of Finance and Investments
Division, Sistema
At the statutory Board meeting following the AGM, the Comstar Board of Directors appointed Mr. Sommer as Chairman.
In addition, the AGM approved Comstar’s Annual Report and the annual financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2008, including the Income Statement (P&L Accounts) of Comstar for 2008, and elected the Audit Committee of Comstar.
The shareholders also approved the new edition of Comstar’s Charter, bylaws regarding the Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Management Board, President, Audit Committee, and Remuneration and Compensation policy for the members of the Board of Directors.
Deloitte & Touch CIS was appointed as Comstar’s US GAAP auditor for 2009, and BDO Unicon was appointed as Comstar’s Russian Accounting Standards auditor for 2009.
For further information, please visit www.comstar-uts.com
Comstar-UTS is the leading fixed-line telecommunications company in Moscow. Comstar provides voice, data, television and other value-added services to residential and corporate subscribers and operators, using its extensive backbone network and exclusive last mile access to 97% of Moscow households. The Company also offers communications services in five Russian regions, Armenia and Ukraine. Comstar had 3.6 million residential subscribers and 795 thousand residential broadband internet subscribers in Moscow, as well as 310 thousand residential regional and international broadband internet subscribers and 1.9 million residential regional pay-TV subscribers at the end of March 2009. Comstar generated US$ 334.4 million of revenues and a 37.8% OIBDA margin for the three months ended March 31, 2009. Comstar’s Global Depositary Receipts are listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: CMST).
Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Comstar UTS. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “will,” “could,” “may” or “might”, the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. Comstar UTS wishes to caution that these statements are only predictions, and that actual events or results may differ materially. Comstar UTS does not intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Many factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in projections or forward-looking statements of Comstar UTS, including, among others, general economic conditions, the competitive environment, risks associated with operating in Russia, rapid technological and market change in the industries Comstar UTS operates in, as well as many other risks specifically related to Comstar UTS and its operations.
1 Based on the Russian Central Bank exchange rate as at June
30, 2009
2 Comstar’s consolidated net income for the
full year 2008 under US GAAP amounted to RUR 4.5 billion or US$ 179.6
million
Comstar UTS
Masha Eliseeva
Tel: +7 985 997 0852
ir@comstar-uts.ru
or
Shared
Value Limited
Matthew Hooper
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7321 5010
comstar@sharedvalue.net
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