At the meeting, the stockholders had planned to approve the company's annual results and distribute the profit for 2004. Moreover, on the agenda were the dismissal and appointment of new members of the company's board. Recently, there has been a dispute between Kyivstar GSM's stockholders - Norwegian Telenor and the Russian Alfa Group.

The stockholders of Ukraine's large mobile operator CJSC Kyivstar GSM failed to hold a meeting on April 28 because spokesmen for the Russian group of companies Alfa, which has a 43.5 percent stake in the operator, failed to attend. Acording to the company's press service, "the meeting failed because of a lack of a quorum, due to the absence of Alfa-owned Storm Ltd.'s representatives." "We're not aware of the causes for their absence," the press service said. At the meeting, the stockholders had planned to approve the company's annual results and distribute the profit for 2004. Moreover, on the agenda were the dismissal and appointment of new members of the company's board.

As was reported earlier, recently there has been a dispute between Kyivstar GSM's stockholders - Norwegian Telenor and the Russian Alfa Group - linked with the possible appearance of the Russian mobile communications operator OAO Vimpelcom (stockholders are Alfa with 32.9 percent of voting stocks and Telenor with 26.6 percent of voting stocks) on the Ukrainian market. Alfa supports Vimpelcom's entry to the Ukrainian cellular communications market through the purchase of CJSC Ukrainian RadioSystems, while Telenor opposes it. At the April 22 meeting, OJSC Vimpelcom's board of directors did not approve the deal to acquire the Ukrainian operator.

In 2004, CJSC Kyivstar GSM saw its USGAAP net profit more than double, to $212 million, the company reported in a concise consolidated report posted on its official web site. Its net sales grew by 71 percent, to $640.7 million, and EBITDA rose by 69 percent, to $377 million, while its EBITDA-margin shrank to 59 percent from 60 percent in 2003. Late in March, Kyivstar GSM had 7.66 million subscribers.

Telenor has a 56.51 percent stake in CJSC Kyivstar GSM, the Russian group of companies Alfa has 43.49 percent. CJSC Kyivstar GSM's statutory fund is $123 million.

© "Interfax"