VimpelCom Announces Second Quarter 2009 Financial and Operating Results
27 Aug 2009

Moscow and New York (August 27, 2009) - Open Joint Stock Company “Vimpel-Communications” (“VimpelCom” or the “Company”) (NYSE: VIP), the leading provider of telecommunications services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), today announced its financial and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2009.
 
Second Quarter 2009 Financial Highlights

• Net operating revenues reached 69.0 billion Russian rubles, an increase of 3.3% versus 1Q09
• OIBDA reached 35.0 billion rubles, an increase of 8.7% versus 1Q09
• Consolidated OIBDA margin improved to 50.6% from 48.1% reported in 1Q09
• Net income amounted to 22.6 billion rubles compared to a 8.5 billion rubles loss in 1Q09
 
Second Quarter 2009 Operating Highlights
 
• Mobile subscribers increased by 1.0 million versus 1Q09, reaching 63.7 million
• Launch of operations in Cambodia and Vietnam under Beeline brand
• Active 3G networks in 51 regions of Russia

Commenting on the performance of the Company, Boris Nemsic, Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom, said, “We are pleased with our performance during the second quarter. We continue to demonstrate strong results with revenues of 69.0 billion rubles and OIBDA of 35.0 billion rubles. In spite of the economic crisis we achieved 12% year-on-year growth in revenue and 21% year-on-year growth in OIBDA.

We increased the number of active mobile subscribers to 63.7 million, almost 19% more than we had last year. The residential broadband business grew in line with our expectations and we now serve 1.7 million fixed and mobile broadband subscribers compared to 0.6 million customers a year ago.

I am especially proud to report that revenue growth coupled with successful business integration and ongoing cost control yielded a consolidated fixed and mobile OIBDA margin of 50.6%. The consolidated OIBDA margin is 2.5 percentage points above a strong first quarter figure and represents a 3.8 percentage point increase compared to the results of the second quarter of 2008.

Cash flow from operations for the quarter amounted to 27.6 billion rubles or US $858 million dollars*. We had a modest increase in capital expenditures compared to the first quarter of 2009. In line with our initial expectations we plan to increase CAPEX in the second half of the year to ensure the sustainability of our business and to capture growth opportunities going forward.

Although our operations during the second quarter reflected the underlying robustness of the telecom markets and our successful business execution, macroeconomic uncertainty still remains a significant factor in the current environment. Hence, looking forward we maintain our stance of cautious optimism”.

*The average exchange rate for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 was 32.2145 RUR/US $

VimpelCom Ltd.

Altimo, a leading private equity group, operating on some of the world's most desirable and potentially lucrative mobile telecommunications markets, was created in 2005 from Alfa Telecom, which itself was established in 2004 to hold the telecoms investments of the Alfa Group Consortium (VimpelCom Ltd., MegaFon and Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.). Those assets are in Russia, the CIS and other promising emerging markets.

VimpelCom Ltd. provides voice and data services through a range of wireless, fixed and broadband technologies. VimpelCom Ltd. is headquartered in Amsterdam and has operations in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Algeria, Bangladesh, Canada, Italy, Pakistan, Burundi, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Central African Republic covering territory with a total population of about 843 million with over 181 mln subscribers. VimpelCom Ltd. operating companies provide services under the "Beeline", "Kyivstar", "Djuice", "Wind", "Infostrada", "Mobilink", "Leo", "Banglalink", "Telecel" and "Djezzy" brands. VimpelCom Ltd. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "VIP". As of 31 December 2010, Altimo owned 44.65% of the voting shares of VimpelCom Ltd. (since June 2011 -  24.99%).

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