Mobile Content Russia

VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark) announced that Henk van Dalen will become Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Management Board of the VimpelCom Ltd. group. The appointment will be effective on September 1, 2010.

Henk van Dalen is CFO and a member of the Board of Management of TNT N.V., an international express and mail delivery services company, publicly listed and traded on Euronext Amsterdam, with operations in more than 200 countries and about 160,000 employees. Before becoming CFO of TNT in 2006, Henk van Dalen worked for 30 years at DSM N.V., a Euronext Amsterdam listed company involved in the production of nutritional, pharmaceutical and chemical products. Mr. van Dalen was group CFO of DSM from 2000 to 2006 and managed various divisions in the period 1990 – 2000.

VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark) announced that its Board approved changes to the reporting structure of the Company. The reporting structure will be divided into four business units--Russia, Ukraine, CIS and International--that will report to the Company’s headquarters in Amsterdam.

In connection with the restructuring, Elena Shmatova has been appointed the General Director of OJSC “VimpelCom” and will lead the Russia business unit. The Ukraine business unit will continue to be led by Igor Lytovchenko, President of Kyivstar. The CIS business unit will continue to be led by Dmitry Kromsky.

“VimpelCom Ltd.” (“VimpelCom Ltd.” or the “Company”) (NYSE: VIP) today announced that it has delivered the squeeze-out demand notice and related material required to be provided under applicable Russian law to OJSC "Vimpel-Communications" ("OJSC VimpelCom").

As described in VimpelCom Ltd.'s final prospectus dated March 25, 2010, all OJSC VimpelCom shares and American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") not tendered to VimpelCom Ltd. in its exchange offers to holders of OJSC VimpelCom shares and ADSs are subject to a mandatory squeeze-out procedure under Russian law. Today, VimpelCom Ltd. commenced the squeeze-out procedure through which it will acquire all remaining OJSC VimpelCom shares, including those represented by ADSs, for a cash payment of RUB 11,800 per share (which is equal to approximately US$382.18 per share at the exchange rate as of May 25, 2010).

A mysterious and minor shareholder in VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark) on Friday withdrew its lawsuit against Telenor, removing the final obstacle for the Norwegian telecoms firm and Alfa Group to merge their stakes in Russia's second-largest mobile operator and Ukraine's Kyivstar.

A federal arbitration court in Tyumen dismissed a decision from a lower court in Omsk, which had ruled in favor of Farimex Products on fining Telenor $1.7 billion.

VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark) has announced test launch of mobile DVB-H TV service in Moscow city, capital of Russia.

Mobile TV service Beeline provides its users with the ability to watch common TV channels on mobile. Users can watch eleven channels. While service operates in beta mode, it is available free of charge.

VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark), today announced that its Board of Directors approved convocation of an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company to vote on an interim dividend payment based on the operating results for the nine months ending on September 30, 2009 (the «Shareholders Meeting»). The Shareholders Meeting will be held on December 17, 2009.

The Board recommended that the Shareholders Meeting approve interim dividends based on the operating results for the nine months ending on September 30, 2009 (calculated in accordance with Russian statutory accounting principles) in the amount of RUR 190.13 per common share of VimpelCom stock (or approximately US$0.32 per American Depositary Share («ADS») based on the Russian Central Bank exchange rate as of September 30, 2009), amounting to a total of approximately RUR 9.75 billion (or approximately US$324 million based on the Russian Central Bank exchange rate as of September 30, 2009), to be payable within 60 days of the approval at the Shareholders Meeting.

VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark) published the rating of content-providers for September 2009. Top-20 is based on total fee paid to companies by VimpelCom for providing services via partner programs (voice, SMS, WAP). Top 5 companies in the rating are Zed Russian (former INFON), A1, i-Free, SMS Online, and IncoreMedia. A new company RM-Invest (SMS-Dostup) appeared in the list.

1. Zed Russia (INFON)
2. A1
3. i-Free
4. SMS Online
5. IncoreMedia
6. Neva Line
7. Plastic Media
8. Next Media Channels (part of Next Media Group)
9. Iricom
10. Inform-Mobil/IMMO

VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark) published the rating of content-providers for September 2009. Top-20 is based on total fee paid to companies by VimpelCom for providing services via partner programs (voice, SMS, WAP). Top 5 companies in the rating are A1, Zed Russia (INFON), i-Free, IncoreMedia, and SMS Online.

1. A1
2. Zed Russian (former INFON)
3. i-Free
4. IncoreMedia
5. SMS Online
6. Neva Line
7. Plastic Media
8. Next Media Channels (part of Next Media Group)
9. Iricom
10. Inform-Mobil/IMMO

Telenor and Russia's Altimo have found a route out of their persistent battles over their Russian and Ukrainian assets and have announced plans to common assets in VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark) and Kyivstar to create a single company.

Altimo is the telecoms investment arm of Russia's Alfa Group, controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman. Telenor holds 56.5 per cent of the shares in Kyivstar. The remaining 43.5 per cent is held by Alfa affiliate Storm. Altimo also owns 6.6% of Turkcell, though which it has a secondary investment in Ukrainian mobile operator Astelit.

Colibria, in partnership with Acision, the world's leading messaging company, today announced that it has enabled Russia's largest operator, MTS, , to interconnect its 'Chat' Mobile Instant Messenger (MIM) service with MegaFon and VimpelCom (which operates under the Beeline trademark). This allows subscribers of the three operators to seamlessly exchange messages across their respective services. The new service, which will be jointly branded as 'Chat' across all three networks, builds on year-on-year growth in messaging for MTS since 2008. This trend is expected to continue by the expansion of messaging access across Russian subscriber communities.