OREANDA-NEWS. September 07, 2009. Expert RA rating agency, in the framework of the National Corporate Governance Rating of RID-Expert RA, announced upgrade of North-West Telecom’s corporate governance rating up to NCGR8 – ‘Advanced Practices of Corporate Governance.’ Thus, according to the results of monitoring conducted by Expert RA, North-West Telecom has turned into a leader in corporate governance quality in Russia.

Level 8 means that the Company has low corporate governance risks, adheres to the Russian legislation standards of corporate governance, complies with most of the recommendations of the Russian Code of Corporate Conduct and some of the recommendations of the world’s best practices of corporate governance.

The assessment of NWT’s corporate governance recorded material positive changes such as:

•   preparation for publication of a corporate social report for 2007-2008;
•   reduction in the time used to get IFRS-based financial statements certified;
•   disclosure of  unaudited quarterly IFRS-based financial statements started;
•   rotation of auditor in 2009 that ensured high degree of independence and objectivity of verification of financial statements.

According to the analysts, the corporate governance system of OJSC North-West Telecom is developing fast as a result of the strategic initiatives of the Company management and shareholders. OJSC North-West Telecom complies with all the corporate governance standards relating to the protection of shareholders’ rights, work of management and control bodies, information disclosure and consideration for the interests of stakeholders involved in corporate relationships. In particular, the analysts highly appreciated the level of disclosure of both financial and non-financial information regarding the Company’s business posted to the detailed and regularly upgraded corporate website at www. nwtelecom. ru. North-West Telecom was given credit for being a leader of mega regional telecom operators in the reduction of time required for certification of financial statements for compliance with international standards in 2006-2008. The opinion of an independent auditor regarding the IFRS statements for 2008 was signed much earlier (May 29) than for the corresponding statements in 2007 and 2006.

In addition, the experts emphasized the efficient business management that enabled NWT to ensure earnings for the shareholders even under the crisis: in 2009, the dividend income of NWT was record high (7.5% - on ordinary shares and 16.4% - on preferred shares), which was significantly higher than the average dividend income on the shares of other Russian companies.  

The experts made a special mention of the activities of NWT’s Board of Directors and its committees. According to them, the Board of Directors of North-West Telecom is one of the leading Russian companies in terms of the quality of its work. A well-balanced ratio between executive, non-executive and independent members provides for objective and independent decisions taken by the Board of Directors. Proper work organization of the Board and its committees have ensured the dynamic growth of OJSC North-West Telecom.