OREANDA-NEWS. February 27, 2008. Open Joint Stock Company “Vimpel-Communications” (“VimpelCom”) (NYSE: VIP), today announced the completion of the subsequent offering period relating to the tender offer by its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Lillian Acquisition, Inc. (“Lillian Acquisition”), for any and all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Golden Telecom, Inc. (“Golden Telecom”) (NASDAQ: GLDN) at a purchase price of $105.00 per share in cash. Based on preliminary information from the depositary with respect to the subsequent offer, as of the expiration of the subsequent offering period at 5:00 pm on February 26, 2008, Golden Telecom stockholders had tendered a total of 38,093,677 shares of Golden Telecom common stock during the initial and subsequent offering periods. These shares represent approximately 94.4% of the outstanding shares of Golden Telecom's common stock, an amount sufficient to permit the completion of a "short-form" merger under applicable Delaware law, without a vote of the stockholders of Golden Telecom. As a result, VimpelCom Finance B.V., a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of VimpelCom, and Lillian Acquisition intend to consummate a “short-form” merger as soon as practicable, subject to satisfaction or waiver of the conditions to the consummation of the merger. In the merger, Lillian Acquisition will be merged into Golden Telecom and all remaining stockholders of Golden Telecom who did not tender their shares in the tender offer (other than those, if any, properly perfecting dissenters’ rights) will receive the same $105.00 per share in cash paid in the tender offer. Golden Telecom stockholders will receive relevant information in the mail on how to receive payment for their shares.