About Altimo

 

Altimo is a leading investment company in Russia, the CIS, and Turkey, operating in the field of mobile and fixed-line communications. Altimo was launched in London on 1 December 2005. Before then, and since 2004, Altimo was known as Alfa Telecom. The Altimo name reflects the company’s newly stated international focus: Altimo stands for Alfa Telecom International Mobile.

 

In June 2005, a new management team led by Alexey Reznikovich developed a fresh strategy and vision for the company. This was to start looking for investments outside the borders of the former Soviet Union and to become recognised as a leading emerging markets telecoms investor. A first step in this strategy, in November 2005, was the acquisition of a 13.2% stake in Turkcell, the largest Turkish mobile phone operator. At that time, the deal was the biggest cross-border purchase by a Russian company.

 

Altimo already has a proven track record of enhancing the performance of the companies in which it invests, reflected in the performance of VimpelCom which has risen by more than ten times in value since the company first made its investment in 2001.

 

The total market capitalization of Altimo’s assets is currently over $16 billion. Together, Altimo’s investee companies have more than 200 million mobile phone subscribers.

 

Altimo is an example of the emergence of Russia’s “new multinationals”: more western-focused, open and transparent, with sound corporate governance and effective corporate management. Little wonder then, that VimpelCom, was the first Russian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Today, Altimo plays a key role in the telecom markets of Eurasia, with its investee companies operating in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, Georgia and Turkey.

Altimo is keen to invest in more projects in the emerging telecoms markets of both Eurasia and Africa, which are particularly attractive due to their large populations, low mobile penetration rates, high GDP growth rate and minimal competition.

 

By combining Altimo’s and Telenor’s assets in VimpelCom Ltd (Russia) and Kyivstar (Ukraine), the two companies have created a new emerging markets telecoms leader, VimpelCom Ltd, and a platform for further expansion in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa. The new company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and serves more than 88 million subscribers in the CIS and South-East Asia. Altimo has 44,7% voting rights in the new company.

 

Another priority of Altimo remains to participate in globalization and consolidation of telecom business getting a firm partnership with one of major Western telecom operators.