OREANDA-NEWS. On 22 June 2009 was announced, that Uralsvyazinform held an annual general meeting today in Perm to review the company’s 2008 performance.

In accordance with the agenda the telecom operator’s shareholders approved the  annual financial statement, annual accounting reports, including the company’s profit and loss statement (P&L account), and also the distribution of the company’s profit (including dividend payouts) for the 2008 financial year.

Headline financial indicators for 2008

(under Russian Accounting Standards)

Item

2008

2007

Chng, y-o-y

Revenues, Rubmln

40,581.0

39,152.6

+3.6%

COGS, Rubmln

33,456.4

30,503.4

+9.7%

EBITDA, Rubmln

13,318.2

13,208.3

+0.8%

EBITDA margin

32.8%

33.7%

-

Operating profit, Rubmln

7,124.6

8,649.3

-17.6%

Operating margin

17.6%

22.1%

-

Pre-tax profit, RUR mln

4,146.4

5,546.4

-25.2%

Net profit, Rubmln

2,677.9

3,685.3

-27.3%

Net margin

6.6%

9.4%

-

Keyoperatingresultsfor2008

Item

As of December 31, 2008

As of December 31, 2007

Chng, y-o-y

Subscribers, th

10,070

9,246

+8.9%

including

 

 

 

fixed-line users, th

3,723

3,699

+0.6%

mobile subscribers, th

5,689

5,146

+10.6%

Broadband Internet customers, th

541

295

+83.4

Cable TV + Utel.TV

117

106

+10.4

Datacomtraffic, Tb

23,392

3,703

6.3x

Localvoicenetworkdigitalization

77.2%

74.5%

 

Averageheadcount, employee

23,520

26,218

-10.3%

The AGM decided to distribute Uralsvyazinform’s 2008 net profit as follows:

To allocate RUR 2,008.4 mln (75% of net profit) to upsize the company’s equity capital;

To spend RUR 669.5 mln (25% of net profit) on dividends, including:

Rub0.034175 per preferred share;

Rub0.012437 percommonshare.

Upon the voting 11 members were elected to Uralsvyazinform’s BoD. They are:

Mikhail Vladimirovich Batmanov, deputy head of Svyazinvest’s corporate governance and legal division;

Alla Borisovna Grigorieva, deputy head of Svyazinvest’s corporate governance and legal division;

Sergey Mikhailovich Kerber, director of the division for investment projects and programs and managing director at CJSC Lider (a company that runs pension fund assets);

Olga Grigorievna Koroleva, Svyazinvest’s chief accountant;

Eduard Vasilievich Lebedev, advisor to Uralsvyazinform CEO;

Mikhail Alexandrovich Leschenko, advisor to the Russian Telecom Minister;

Alexander Yurievich Provotorov, first deputy general director of Svyazinvest;

Dmitry Yurievich Tushunov, head of the analytical department and chief economist at CJSC Lider (a company that runs pension fund assets);

Elena Vladimirovna Umnova, Svyazinvest’s deputy general director;

Anatoly Yakovlevich Ufimkin, Uralsvyazinform’s general director; and

Evgeny Valerievich Yurchenko, Svyazinvest CEO.

Uralsvyazinform’s audit committee was elected with the following members:

Irina Alexandrovna Arkhipova, deputy head of Svyazinvest’s economic planning and budgeting department;

Valentina Fedorovna Veremyanina, director of Svyazinvest’s corporate governance and legal division;

Svetlana Fedorovna Voronkova, senior specialist of the methodology department at Svyazinvest’s accounting, tax and statistical records division;

Yan Sergeevich Grinchenko, senior specialist of the department in charge of procuring activities of representatives from Svyazinvest’s corporate governance and legal division;

Olga Olegovna Konkova, senior specialist of Svyazinvest’s internal audit division;

Ivan Vladimirovich Topol, Svyazinvest’s deputy chief accountant; and

Olga Sergeevna Chetverkina, senior specialist of Svyazinvest’s internal audit division. 

The AGM appointed KMPG, which was earlier announced the winner of the tender among auditing firms, as the company’s auditor to perform mandatory audits of accounting records and accounting (financial) statements for 2009 in accordance with Russian Accounting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards for 2009.

Through decisions adopted by the AGM amendments were made to the Charter of Uralsvyazinform and the Statute “On the Board of Directors”, approved regulations (percentage) of funds to be allocated to calculate annual remuneration of board members. The shareholders also voted for Uralsvyazinform to pull out of the Association for CDMA Operators.

Uralsvyazinform CEO Anatoly Ufimkin had the following to say: “In 2008 the company achieved an important milestone: its aggregate subscriber base topped 10 mln, including 5.7 mln mobile users and 3.7 mln fixed-line subscribers, 541,000 broadband Internet customers, 170,000 pay TV subscribers (cable TV plus digital interactive television services Utel.TV). In 2008 Uralsvyazinform began to offer services using satellite technology to corporate clients that provide services to manufacturing facilities or office premises in the Urals Federal District and in the Perm region. Satellite services were first offered to the West Urals Bank of Sberbank of Russia, Lukoil, the Urals Customs Division of the Russian Customs Service, Post of Russia and other companies. In view of the difficult economic conditions the year of 2009 will not be smooth for Uralsvyazinform. But the operator is well positioned and possesses relevant resources not only to cope with external challenges, but also to retain the pace of expansion”.

At the first meeting of the newly elected BoD Evgeny Yurchenko was elected as Uralsvyazinform’s chairman of the board and Eduard Lebedev as deputy chairman of the board.