ARMENIAN GOVT. OFFERS 10% IN ARMENTEL TO RUSSIA’S VIMPELCOM

TREND< Azerbaijan
Nov 8 2006

(RIA Novosti) – Armenia will sell VimpelCom [RTS: VIMP] the remaining
10% in one of the country’s two telecom companies on condition it
abandons further expansion plans, a minister said Wednesday.

The Armenian government has offered its stake in Armentel to VimpelCom,
which has already closed a deal to buy the other 90% from Greek
telecom group Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (OTE)
for 341.9 million euros ($434.5 million), Communications Minister
Andranik Manukyan said, reports Trend.

VimpelCom, which outpaced the Russian mobile market leader MTS
[RTS: MTSS] at the tender to buy 40% of the Armenian cellular
telecommunications market, undertakes to pay the Armenian company’s
liabilities of about 40 million euros ($51 million).

The deal is to be closed by the end of 2006, VimpelCom said in a
news release.

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (OTE) purchased Armentel
in 1997 for $142.5 million and has since invested $300 million
in the company, whose earnings in 2005 stood at 110 million euros
($140 million).

Armentel has about 600,000 fixed-line and 400,000 mobile service
subscribers, and operates in the GSM 900 and CDMA standards.