COMSTAR MERGES SEVEN REGIONAL SUBSIDIARIES INTO CJSC "COMSTAR – REGIONS" AND BRANCH NETWORK
PR-Inside.com
Business Wire 2009
2009-08-10 09:08:01
"COMSTAR – United TeleSystems" JSC ("Comstar" or "the Group")
(LSE:CMST), the largest integrated telecommunications provider in
Moscow and 69 Russian cities, today announced that it has completed
the first stage of the reorganization of its regional business
through the merger of seven of its largest subsidiaries into CJSC
Comstar-Regions, which is 100% owned by Comstar and will serve as a
centre for consolidation of the Group’s regional assets.
Comstar-Regions was legally registered on August 3, 2009, and
consists of CJSC STREAM-TV, owner of several subsidiaries and
branches in Russia’s regions, CJSC Digital Telephone Networks South
in Rostov-on-Don, CJSC Strategia in Yekaterinburg, which owns CJSC
Ural Telephone Company, CJSC Intersvyaz-Service, CJSC Inter-TV Media,
a provider of communications services in Ryazan and owner of Interlink
Group, CJSC Teleradiotechnika in Smolensk, and CJSC Sandy Service in
Nizhny Novgorod.
Comstar-Regions comprises branches in the Central, North-West,
Southern, Volga, Ural and Siberian Federal Districts, with
corresponding centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don,
Saratov, Yekaterinburg and Tyumen.
Sergey Pridantsev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comstar
UTS, commented: "We continue to execute on all of our previously
set strategic goals to restructure the business and create a unified
efficient operating company offering telecommunications services on a
national basis. The challenge now is not only to unite these assets
into Comstar-Regions, but also to gradually switch to a unified
system of operations for offering services in all of our regions,
whilst maintaining a maximum level of comfort for both our clients
and subsidiaries. Our subscribers should be the first ones to feel
the main benefit of the restructuring of our regional business."
Viktor Koresh, Vice President for the Regional Development, added:
"Our remaining assets will be also merged into Comstar-Regions when
they are ready to be reorganized, as these companies have to adhere to
a set of corporate requirements both from a legal perspective and in
terms of business practices. The result of the current reorganization
will be a more transparent and efficient business structure, which
will allow us to continue our successful development going forward."
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Comstar-UTS is the leading fixed-line telecommunications company in
Moscow. Comstar provides voice, data, television and other value-added
services to residential and corporate subscribers and operators,
using its extensive backbone network and exclusive last mile access
to 97% of Moscow households. The Company also offers communications
services in five Russian regions, Armenia and Ukraine. Comstar had 3.6
million residential subscribers and 795 thousand residential broadband
internet subscribers in Moscow, as well as 310 thousand residential
regional and international broadband internet subscribers and 1.9
million residential regional pay-TV subscribers at the end of March
2009. Comstar generated US$ 334.4 million of revenues and a 37.8%
OIBDA margin for the three months ended March 31, 2009. Comstar’s
Global Depositary Receipts are listed on the London Stock Exchange
(ticker. CMST).
Some of the information in this press release may contain projections
or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or
the future financial performance of Comstar UTS. You can identify
forward looking statements by terms such as "expect," "believe,"
"anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "will," "could," "may" or "might",
the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. Comstar
UTS wishes to caution that these statements are only predictions,
and that actual events or results may differ materially. Comstar
UTS does not intend to update these statements to reflect events
and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the
occurrence of unanticipated events. Many factors could cause the actual
results to differ materially from those contained in projections or
forward-looking statements of Comstar UTS, including, among others,
general economic conditions, the competitive environment, risks
associated with operating in Russia, rapid technological and market
change in the industries Comstar UTS operates in, as well as many
other risks specifically related to Comstar UTS and its operations.