OREANDA-NEWS. On July 02, 2007 “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar”) (LSE: CMST) announced the decisions made at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (“AGM”) of its 55,73% owned subsidiary, Moscow City Telephone Network (“MGTS”), reported the press-centre of COMSTAR.

The meeting was held today, on June 29, 2007. 

The AGM approved an annual dividend of approximately RUR 1,3 billion, or approximately US$ 51,5 million, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2006, to holders of MGTS shares as at the record date of May 12, 2007.  The dividend, which amounts to a payment of RUR 8,75 per ordinary share (approximately US$ 0,34), and of RUR 39,77 per preferred share (approximately US$ 1,54), is due to be paid by the end of 2007.

The total dividend payment to holders of ordinary shares will amount to approximately RUR 698,5 million (approximately US$ 27,0 million), which represents approximately 11% of MGTS’ net income for 2006 under Russian Accounting Standards (RUR 6,3 billion or US$ 245,3 million). The total payment to holders of preferred shares will amount to approximately RUR 635.0 million (approximately US$ 24,5 million) and represent approximately 10% of MGTS’ net income.

The AGM upheld the decision of the previous AGM, held on June 17, 2006, not to pay an annual dividend for the twelve months ended December 31, 2005.

The shareholders approved the election of the members of the Board of Directors as follows:

Kirill Andreychenko – Deputy General Director for Corporate Development, Sistema Telecom. Mr. Andreychenko was nominated by Comstar UTS. 

Boris Antonyuk – Deputy Minister for Information Technologies and Communications of the Russian Federation. Mr. Antonyuk was nominated by Svyazinvest.

Leonid Varakin – President, International Telecommunication Academy. Mr. Varakin was nominated by Comstar UTS.

Alexey Goncharuk – Vice President, Operations Director, Comstar UTS.  Mr. Goncharuk was nominated by Comstar UTS.

Alexander Gorbunov – Vice President for Strategy and Development, Comstar UTS. Mr. Gorbunov was nominated by Comstar UTS.

John Julian Maloun – Head of Moscow brand of VEUS Holding. Mr. Maloun was nominated by Lindsell Enterprises Limited

Alexander Kiselev – General Director of Svyazinvest. Mr. Kiselev was nominated by Svyazinvest.

Vladimir Lagutin – former general Director of Sistema Telecom. Mr. Lagutin was nominated by Comstar UTS.

Vladimir Malyavin – General Director, Comstar Direct. Mr. Malyavin was nominated by Comstar UTS.

Oleg Mukovozov – Director for Corporate Management, Comstar UTS. Mr. Mukovozov was nominated by Comstar UTS.

Victor Savchenko – Executive Director, Director of Corporate Management and Legal Department, Svyazinvest. Mr. Savchenko was nominated by Svyazinvest.

Nikolay Tokarev, Chief Financial Officer, Comstar UTS. Mr. Tokarev was nominated by Comstar UTS.

At the statutory Board meeting following the AGM, the MGTS Board of Directors appointed Vladimir Lagutin as Chairman. Deloitte & Touche CIS was appointed as independent auditor for 2007.