RUSSIA’S MTS TO BUY ARMENIA’S LARGEST TELECOM GROUP

Agence France Presse — English
September 14, 2007 Friday 10:21 AM GMT

Russian telecommunications group MobileTelesystems (MTS) on Friday
announced an agreement to buy Armenia’s largest mobile operator
VivaCell, putting nearly all cellular communications in the ex-Soviet
country under the control of Russian companies.

MTS, Russia’s largest mobile company, will buy 80 percent of the parent
company of VivaCell for 310 million euros (430 million dollars) and has
agreed to purchase the remaining 20 percent for an undisclosed sum,
MTS head Leonid Melamed said at a press conference in the Armenian
capital Yerevan.

VivaCell has about 986,000 users in Armenia, about 66 percent of the
local mobile telephone market, MTS said.

Russian telecommunications group VimpelCom last year reached a deal to
buy 90 percent of Armenia’s second-largest mobile operator, Armentel,
for 342 million euros (474 million dollars.)