OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2012. Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS” or the “Company” – NYSE: MBT), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, announces that on November 12, 2012, MTS’s wholly-owned subsidiary Comstar-Regions CJSC acquired a 5.51% stake in Telecompany Spectr OJSC (“Telecompany Spectr”), a provider of fixed broadband and pay-TV services in the Leningrad Oblast.

The acquisition brings the ownership stake of Comstar-Regions CJSC in Telecompany Spectr to 100%. The purchase price amounted to 8 million rubles. The stake was purchased at a privatization auction organized by the Committee on management of the municipal assets of the Sosnovoborsk city district of the Leningrad Oblast.

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC ("MTS") is the leading telecommunications group in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, offering mobile and fixed voice, broadband, pay TV as well as content and entertainment services in one of the world's fastest growing regions. Including its subsidiaries, the Group services nearly 100 million mobile subscribers. The Group has been awarded GSM licenses in Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus, a region that boasts a total population of more than 230 million. Since June 2000, MTS' Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol MBT).