On May 29-30, 2008, URALSIB Capital hosted a conference in London focused on Svyazinvest, Russia’s largest telecom holding.URALSIB Capital organized individual meetings between investors and the management of Svyazinvest and its subsidiaries, the interregional telecommunication companies.

During the two-day conference 79 meetings took place, involving more than 25 investment funds from the UK, the US and Russia.

“In organizing direct dialogue between investors and the management of Russia’s major telecommunication holding, we have fulfilled our aim of providing investors with the most up-to-date, reliable and comprehensive information concerning the development of the Svyazinvest subsidiaries, about ongoing changes at the companies and about events that will shape the future development of the sector,” said Konstantin Chernyshev, URALSIB Capital’s head of research.

Svyazinvest is one of the world’s largest telecommunication groups. Its charter capital was built via the consolidation of state holdings in public telecom companies created from the privatization of state telecommunication companies.

Svyazinvest’s major assets consist of the seven interregional companies, Rostelecom (the country’s main long-distance provider) and Hyprosvyaz (Russia’s leading telecom equipment design institute). The interregional providers had a combined installed capacity of 31.7 mln lines as of 1 January 2007. The Svyazinvest subsidiaries hold licenses for local, long-distance and data transmission services and also offer ISDN, wireless and mobile services.