Nasdaq Marks Golden Telecom's 5-Year Listing Anniversary NEW YORK, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexander Vinogradov, president of Golden Telecom, opened the daytime session at the Nasdaq stock exchange, the largest electronic stock exchange, on Thursday. The market opening marked Russia and CIS countries' leading independent operator of integrated telecommunication services' five-year listing anniversary. At the ceremony, Bruce Aust, Nasdaq's executive vice president, said that Golden Telecom was a unique company, as it is incorporated in the United States and has its headquarters in Russia. He said the company had impressive indicators. In the second quarter of 2004, its total income was $138.8 million, a 72% increase against the same period last year. Mr. Aust said additional opportunities for the company to expand business and increase its share of the communications services market were opened by the expected stable growth of the Russian economy for the next 3-5 years. Mr. Aust said that Nasdaq hoped for continued productive cooperation with Golden Telecom. Mr. Vinogradov said that over the past five years Golden Telecom's capitalization increased by fourfold and amounted to $1.1 billion on September 24. He said that Russian regions were the main engine of Golden Telecom's growth and that the company operated in 64 constituent members of the Russian Federation. Oleg Viyugin, head of the Federal Service for Financial Markets (FSFR), also attended the ceremony and said that currently, the majority of Russian stocks were traded on the London Stock Exchange and that daily transactions on that exchange were $2-$3 billion. "This is a considerable amount, and we hope that Nasdaq's share of our issuers' stock turnover will become comparable to it," Mr. Viyugin said. "Russian companies that want to become public companies want to be known not only in this country, but internationally as well," Mr. Viyugin said. He said that becoming a public company was the best way to become known and increase capitalization, as foreign investors account for a rather large share (about 40%) of the Russian stock market. Mr. Viyugin also said that to place its shares on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, a Russian company should be listed in Russia and obtain permission from the FSFR, also no less than 40% of the company's shares should be on the Russian market. "Companies' listing in Russia and abroad generally leads to an increase in their capitalization," he said. "We set the prices in Russia, preserving the national market and maintaining its liquidity and, simultaneously, giving the companies opportunities to attract funds from all over the world." He said that recently American companies had begun to show an interest in listings on Russian trading systems. "This shows that there are prospects for the two countries' companies on both the United States' and Russia's capital markets," Mr. Viyugin said. DATASOURCE: Golden Telecom CONTACT: Anna Chin Go Pin of Golden Telecom Public Relations, +7-501-797-9300, Fax - +7-501-797-9332,

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