IR Blog

Last week we have celebrated the 10th anniversary of listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). MTS’ management went to New York to ring the NYSE closing bell and meet with partners of the Company based in the city. Click here to watch the video of the closing bell.

This anniversary offered us the opportunity to reflect on the progress MTS has made during the past ten years. In the year 2000, when we listed here in New York, we were a Moscow-based operator servicing just around 3 million mobile users. Ten years later, MTS has over 100 million customers across Russia and five neighboring countries. We have offered basic voice services back in 2000, and now we have expanded our offering to mobile and fixed voice and broadband, pay TV as well as content and entertainment services. We have also been recognized among the strongest global brands in the BRANDZ survey published by the Financial Times that has listed MTS as the most valuable brand in Russia and among the top 100 globally (LINK), and we continue to be the premiere blue-chip Russian company.

To make the occasion more memorable, we decided to bring a bit of Russia to the financial center of New York. We placed a huge banner inspired by the Soviet poster art on the façade of the NYSE and gave out Russian food to around 2,000 employees of the NYSE. Following the closing bell, MTS management and the CEO of NYSE Euronext hosted a cocktail reception at the NYSE to commemorate the anniversary.

More photos from the event can be viewed here.

Our English-language corporate website has recently been named the best in Russia in 2009 by H&H Webranking. H&H Webranking conducts surveys of capital market participants such as the financial analysts, investors, business journalists and jobseekers, so as to review such aspects as availability of information, ease of access and frequency of updates of corporate websites.
 
“Mobile TeleSystems took a huge step forward from last year’s 20th position. Climbing 20 positions in one year... to the company in Russia that best fulfils the demands from the international capital market is very impressive,” says Marcus Eriksson, head of H&H Webranking.

We have set the tentative date for our Q4 and FY 2009 financial results on April 1, 2010. We will confirm the date closer to the event.

You can view the latest information on our upcoming events here.

President and CEO of MTS, Mikhail Shamolin, recently gave an interview on TheStreet.com. In the interview, Mr. Shamolin provides his views on the Company's stock performance vis-a-vis investors' perception of Russian companies as well as answers a few questions on the latest developments in the Russian telecommunications market.

Earlier this week MTS became the only Russian telecommunications company to obtain the ISO 9001:2008 certificate of conformity for its Quality Management System that covers all of our locations in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The certification audit was conducted by SGS, the global leader in inspection, verification, testing and certification services.

 From left to right: Alexander Gamov – Director of the Quality Assurance Department at MTS, Peter Marriott – Vice-President of SGS SA, Konstantin Timoshechkin – Manager in charge of business development at SGS S.A. (Eastern Europe).

On Thursday, November 19, 2009, Dr. Michael Hecker gave an interview on Sky News. In the clip below, Dr. Hecker shares his thoughts on the current trends in the telecommunications industry including our recent acquisition of a controlling stake of Comstar-UTS by MTS.

On October 27, IR Magazine Russia & CIS held its annual award ceremony, where we were honored with the grand prix for the best overall IR.

An article in the IR Magazine talks about the award:

“Investor relations in Russia can be tough. The country’s stock market is still in its infancy and remains far more volatile than other major country’s bourses. One consistent performer amid these conditions is Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), which this week picked up another award for its IR department.

The mobile phone operator won the grand prix for best overall IR at the IR magazine Russia & CIS awards in Moscow on Tuesday. Joshua Tulgan, the company’s director of IR, was present to accept the award. With this prize, MTS builds on its success last year, when it picked up best IR by a Russian company at the IR Magazine Continental Europe Awards.”

Following the 2009 Analyst and Investor Day in Moscow (see previous blog entry), we have posted audio recordings of each session on our website.

Below you can find a few photos from the event.


Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of MTS, opening the first session, "Corporate Strategy 2009+"

Yesterday, we held the 2009 Analyst and Investor Day in Moscow with participation of close to 100 members of the investment community both foreign and local. The interactive format of the event provided an opportunity for those in attendance to closely interact with MTS’ top management. A range of important topics was discussed including the Company’s new 3i Strategy, integration of Comstar, financial management and guidance for 2009, as well as the developments in our markets of operation.

For those unable to join us at the event, presentations were made available on our website. Later this week, we will be posting audio recordings of the sessions and a few photos from the event.

By Joshua Tulgan, Director of Investor Relations at MTS (NYSE:MBT)

Recently, we tracked a discussion about the role of IR in the M&A process on a couple of industry blogs (original entry and the response to it). Given the recent announcement of our intent to acquire a controlling stake of COMSTAR-UTS, I thought I could offer one perspective from an IR professional.

I would agree that investment banks are a great resource for information for M&A communications (i.e. the data points used to sell the deal, such as multiples and comparisons with other similar transactions, particularly in a global context). At the same time, I do believe that the IR department should be brought in to discuss such key questions as the strategic justification, valuation process, and key integration issues inherent in any M&A deal.