OREANDA-NEWS. June 20, 2007. Uralsvyazinform held its annual general shareholders meeting in Chelyabinsk concerning the results of 2006.

 In line with the agenda, shareholders approved the annual financial statement, the annual accounting reports, including the profit and loss statement of the Company (profit and loss accounts), the allocation of profit, including payment of dividends and the Company’s losses based on the results of the 2006 reporting year.

Headline financial and operating results for 2006 (RAS)

The shareholders meeting adopted a decision to pay out 2006 dividends on the results of Uralsvyazinform as follows:

- 0.026606 ruble per one preferred share until August 14, 2007;
- 0.016393 ruble per one common share until December 15, 2007.

The total amount of dividend payments, in the event of approval at the meeting, comes to 737,956,988 or 35.4% of the Company’s RAS net income or 35.4% of 2006 RAS net income.  The bulk of 2006 net income (retained) – Rub 1,346,733,475 was allocated to raising the Company’s equity capital.

The meeting approved the company’s 2007 auditor as Ernst & Young (recommended by the Board of Directors for approval on a tender basis).

Motions were passed by the meeting to made amendments and additions to the Charter of Uralsvyazinform, the Procedure for Conducting the Annual General Shareholders Meeting, the Statute of the Board of Directors, the Statute of the Board of Management, the size was determined for the annual remuneration of members of the Board of Directors.

 General Director of Urlasvyazinform, Anatoly Ufimkin noted:

“One of the company’s main achievements in 2006 was that it managed to make serious headway in the provision of value-added services, revenue from which surged 70%.  A top priority was conquering the mass market for broadband access. In 2006, the number of broadband ports connected (DSL and VPN) rose 6.8 times – from 16,900 to 115,000.  An ambitious task in 2007 is to reach 280,000 connected broadband access ports.  The company’s future depends directly on the results of operations on the broadband access market, since these services form the main reserve for earnings and business growth.  In order to win the fierce competitive struggle, Uralsvyazinform needs to tap into the competitive advantages available from being a universal operator.  The company should be in a position to offer households and corporate clients efficient comprehensive solutions when it comes to managing any kind of traffic, whether voice, datacom or video.  This means being able to deliver to the client any kind of traffic required for the latter’s business, training, creative endeavors or leisure solutions”.

 At the first meeting of the new lineup of the Board of Directors of Uralsvyazinform, the chairman was again elected as deputy CEO of Svyazinvest Evgeny Chechelnitsky.