OREANDA-NEWS. April 06, 2010. Svyazinvest (hereinafter, the Company) held a regular board of directors meeting in Moscow on March 25, 2010.

The board made a positive assessment of the results of measures adopted by the Company’s management which were aimed at counteracting the negative influence of the economic downturn.  The report, which was presented by deputy general director of Svayzinvest Elena Umnova, pointed out that RTOs demonstrated positive trends in all headline and relative financial indicators in 2009 amid crisis conditions.

Strict cost-cutting made it possible to boost net income by 21.2% and EBITDA by 13.6% in 2009.  Furthermore, revenue increased 2.4%, while ROIC in 2009 and 2010 exceeds the cost of debt resources (11.26% and 11.15%, respectively), raised by the Group’s companies, which points to a rise in business value and creates fundamental conditions for growing capitalization. The target budgets of the Group’s companies provide for further growth of financial and economic indicators, as well as higher business efficiency.

In line with the directives handed down by the State Property Management Agency for review by the Board of Directors, the issue “On the program for energy conservation and raising energy efficiency” was placed on the agenda.  The board of directors of the Company instructed the executive bodies of Svyazinvest to have the joint-stock companies of the Group’s companies to work out an energy conservation and energy efficiency program as well as plans for the implementation of this program and forward these documents to the State Property Management Agency for subsequent submission to the Government of the Russian Federation.

In addition, an analysis of the operating and financial indicators of Far East Telecom was presented to the Company’s Board of Directors. Addressing the meeting, the general director of the company Andrei Balatsenko pointed out that implementation of the commercial and technical initiatives outlined in Far East Telecom’s business strategy has made it possible to strengthen the company’s positions on the paid-services market in 2009 and to achieve strong financial efficiency.  The company holds leading positions in most segments of the service market.  Far East Telecom has the second biggest subscriber base for interactive TV services in Russia, with nearly 76,800 subscribers and a 20% penetration rate for interactive television among broadband Internet subscribers.

According to the management of Far East Telecom, the main challenges for 2010 include rapidly expanding broadband Internet, maintaining leadership on the local voice market, rolling out interactive television services, amending the Company’s structure and automating business processes.

The board of directors also adopted a decision to convene a general shareholder’s meeting of Svyazinvest, the agenda of which is to include the State for paying out remuneration to members of the board of directors of Svyazinvest”.  Earlier, no remuneration was paid to the Company’s board of directors.

The board approved the 2Q 2010 Work Plan for the Company’s board of directors and also reviewed a number of other issues.

The meeting was attended by the following persons:

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

Sergey A. Drozdov, senior vice-president, manager of AFK Sistema’s proprietary complex;

Mikhail A. Leschenko, deputy general director of Svyazinvest;

Konstantin V. Malofeev, Managing Partner of Marshall Capital Partner direct investment fund);

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.