Vimpelcom CEO joins Euroset board

MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - Vimpelcom (RTS: VIMP) and Megafon (RTS: MEGF) (together with its principal shareholder Garsdale), which became the equal owners of Euroset (RTS: TDEV) at the end of last year, have both appointed some of their senior executives to the leading Russian mobile phone retailer's board of directors.

Vimpelcom's representatives on Euroset's board are the mobile operator's CEO Anton Kudryashov; Mikhail Gerchuk, commercial and strategy director at Vimpelcom Ltd., the Russian operator's parent company; and Vimpelcom vice president for sales Sergei Rubtsov, Vimpelcom told Interfax.

Megafon is represented on the Euroset board by Mikhail Dubin, executive director for business development on the mass market, and Igor Maistrenko, director of sales and service, Megafon CEO Ivan Tavrin told Interfax. Garsdale, which is controlled by billionaire Alisher Usmanov, is represented on the Euroset board by Pavel Kaplun, the manager of Usmanov's holding company USM Group.

At the beginning of December 2012, Megafon and Garsdale closed a deal to buy 50% of Euroset from businessman Alexander Mamut. At the same time, Vimpelcom, which already owned 49.9% of Euroset, bought out the remaining 0.1% from Mamut.

The deal valued Euroset at $2.14 billion, and with its debt of $160 million the price was $2.3 billion.

The new shareholders, upon closing the deal, signed an agreement on corporate governance at Euroset Holding N.V. The agreement stipulates that any substantive issues must be decided through negotiations and must find a consensus among the shareholders or their representatives on the board.

"If the board of directors does not reach a consensus, a decision will not be made," Megafon public relations director Pyotr Lidov said.

Euroset president Alexander Malis told Interfax that neither Megafon nor Vimpelcom meddle in the retailer's day-to-day management. "We adhere to strict corporate governance: management can answer for the company's results only when it handles operational management itself. Both of our shareholders agree with this," Malis said.

Euroset operates 5,252 outlets in Russia, including 529 under Vimpelcom's Beeline brand, and 81 in Belarus. Euroset has a 32% share of mobile phone sales in Russia by number of units.

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