OREANDA-NEWS. Ukrtelecom, the largest national fixed-line provider, has appointed a new CEO, Lasha Mikava, who previously managed Vega Telecommunications Group operating under umbrella of SCM Group. Some market players believe that after the appointment Ukrtelecom will focus on developing fixed-line services and cooperating with the mobile provider Astelit.

Yesterday the Supervisory Board of the country's largest fixed-line provider, Ukrtelecom, appointed a new Chairman, Lasha Mikava, who served as the CEO of Vega Telecommunications Group, a part of SCM Group. The acting Board Chairman of Ukrtelecom Igor Kravets has taken office of Director of the company. Having recently acquired 92.7% of Ukrtelecom, SCM started reshuffling senior management of the new asset.

According to press office of Ukrtelecom, the Chairman will devise the development strategy of the company and oversee its implementation, while the Director will address the daily needs of the company and focus on its operations. This function was previously performed by the Board dissolved on 7 October by the then Supervisory Board.

The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Ukrtelecom Leonid Netudykhata believes that the split of operations and strategic management will contribute to improving the company's efficiency, prevent a possible conflict of interest and a concentration of power in hands of one person. “Such approach will help to meet the goals set by the company's shareholders most effectively,” noted Mr Netudykhata.

Management reshuffle had taken place in Ukrtelecom even before SCM came in view. Thus, after Ukrtelecom's CFO Yevgeny Shapovalov left the company in June, he was succeeded a few days later by Aleksandr Chernyavsky, who held the same post at Interpipe Management. Natalya Agarkova joined the Board on the same day with Mr Chernyavsky. Before that, she served as Chief Technical Director of Vega Telecommunications Group. The new owner has changed the management after the deal's closure, at the shareholders' meeting on 8 October, when the shareholders re-elected the Supervisory Board and dissolved the Board.

The newly elected Chairman Lasha Mikava is an experienced player in the telecoms market and has held executive positions for the past 20 years. Mr Mikava joined the SCM Group in October 2005. In 2007-2011, he managed the project to consolidate national providers of cable TV and Internet, and in February 2011 was appointed the CEO of Vega.

The deputy director of the Institute of Information Society Yaroslav Pavlovsky thinks that the choice of the new senior managers of Ukrtelecom indicates that in the near future the provider will try to work in a dominating manner and seek to take a leading position in the telecoms market. “It's too early to talk about the rapid development of new technologies, yet it's possible that some game rules in the telecoms market may be changed any time soon,” noted the expert. Mr Pavlovsky also has the view that the widely discussed consolidation of Vega and Ukrtelecom will happen sooner or later, but not now. Oleg Prozhivalsky, corporate management and control chief at MTS Ukraine, shares this view and says that the management rotation proves that Ukrtelecom is focused on the development of fixed-line services.

The CEO of Astelit (ÒÌ life:)) Aleksandr Barinov believes that we'll see further collaboration between Ukrtelecom and Astelit (46% owned by SCM). He reminded that both companies have been working together on such issues as communication channel lease and process areas for a long time, yet declined to comment on any future development plans.