VTB TO FORM LEASING SUBSIDIARY IN ARMENIA

Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
December 10, 2007 Monday 4:02 PM MSK

Russia’s VTB (RTS: VTBR) group will soon create a leasing company in
Armenia, Andrei Kostin, the VTB chairman, told reporters in Yerevan
on Saturday.

The Armenia-based leasing firm will be a 100% subsidiary of VTB
Leasing, which already operates in Russia and Ukraine, said Valery
Ovsyannikov, the director of VTB Armenia.

"We expect [the new leasing] company to start operating at the end
of this year or early next year," Ovsyannikov said.

Ovsyannikov said the new leasing firm’s plans might include acquiring
SSG-100 planes from Sukhoi Civilian Aircraft: VTB is already making
$55 million-$60 million available to supply the Armavia airline with
two SSG-100 on leasing terms in 2008.

The leasing company might also provide equipment for mining and
metallurgical company Armenian Copper Programme (ACP) to build a
$300-million mining and concentrating plant at the Tekhut copper-
molybdenum field.

VTB Leasing’s leasing portfolio had risen to $2.4 billion at the end
of the first half of 2007, from $1.24 billion at the end of 2006.

The company signed a deal to lease rolling stock with Ukraine’s state
railway in 2007.