IR Blog

We are proud to share two articles in the Financial Times published this week, reporting on MTS and our content portal, Omlet.ru. We have talked about Omlet.ru in this blog before and it has recently received Meffys award.

During our trip to New York to celebrate the 10th anniversary of listing on the NYSE, Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of MTS, met with the Financial Times journalists. Mikhail talked about content distribution in Russia, how we can overcome the piracy grip, and why MTS has a window of opportunity to carve a strong position in the potentially lucrative content market.

Here are the articles:

Financial Times, Russian Omlet mushrooms with legal downloads

Financial Times, Russia’s MTS in talks to boost web content

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.

Pavel Roytberg, Director for Products and Services at MTS Russia, receives the GSMA Global Mobile Award.

We have attended the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week and wanted to share some highlights of MTS at the show for the readers of our blog.

In a video interview below with Light Reading TV, Dr. Michael Hecker, Vice President for Strategy and Corporate Development at MTS, discusses the rising demand for data in our markets, our growth outlook and plans for LTE.



There have also been a number of announcements at the show relevant to MTS:

FOX Business Network, interviewed Mikhail Shamolin, CEO and President of MTS, in Davos last week. Shamolin attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos, using the opportunity to meet with his peers to learn how others are managing through the global economic downturn and discuss trends and ideas shaping the telecom and entertainment industries. In the video below, Shamolin discusses the future of telecoms and the potential for growth in our core markets of Russia and the CIS.

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).

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.

Russia Today, the leading English-speaking TV channel based in Russia, has reported on our Q2 results and the intent to acquire a controlling stake in COMSTAR-UTS.

You can check out the video on their website, featuring an interview with our President and CEO, Mikhail Shamolin.

During the first week of June, MTS participated in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. At the Forum, MTS management hosted over 40 investors as part of Renaissance Capital 13th Annual Investor Conference, discussing Q1’2009 results, retail strategy and potential opportunities in the fixed broadband market.

MTS and Nokia sign partnership agreement. From left to right: Niels Nielsen, General Manager, Nokia Russia; Victor Saeijs, Vice-President, Sales, Eurasia, Nokia; Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO, MTS.