Vimpelcom does not see Russia telecom market down much
VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark), Russia's No.2 mobile carrier, does not think the Russian consumer telecommunications market is shrinking that much and sees the economy rebounding faster than in the 1998 Russian crisis. "I don't think we are going to see that much of a contraction," Chief Executive Officer Alexander Izosimov told Reuters at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
"Talking to the bankers here we feel much better, much healthier," he said, adding that he did not expect Russians to dramatically change behaviour in terms of communication.
Vimpelcom's major shareholders include Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's business empire Alfa Group and Norwegian telecoms company Telenor.
Vimpelcom's license portfolio covers 340 million people and as of September 30 had 57.8 million subscribers.
