Comstar UTS is the largest multi-service communications operator in Moscow, Moscow Region, and some Russian regions and former Soviet republics.
General Director Semyon Rabovski said sales grew 31% in 2005 to $907.6 million. Operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) increased 44% in 2005 year on year, to $358.8 million. Operating profit grew 55% to $268.4 million.
Capital investment exceeded $52 million in 2005, Rabovski said, and would stay at last year's level in 2006. He added that the company planned to transform its regional acquisitions into Comstar UTS branches until the end of 2006.
Rabovski said the company would establish a corporate governance center by the beginning of June as part of a corporate strategy to optimize its core business operations, including technical policy, business development, information technologies, finance and investment, and regional operations.
The company will also pay closer attention to its branch in Odessa, Ukraine, in a bid to pursue a more active policy on the Ukrainian market, Rabovski said.
Comstar UTS was formed in November 2004 through a merger of Comstar, MTU-Inform and Telmos. Comstar UTS' main shareholder is AFK Sistema (RTS: AFKS), which has a 54.58% stake in the company.
