New Telephone Company (NTC) (merged with Vimpelcom)

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The New Telephone Company (NTC), GSM cellular communications operator of the Primorsk region was established in 1993 by Russian shippers and Singaporean traders. In December 1995 the Communications Ministry issued NTK a license for GSM 900 mobile communications. In 1997, the company started to service its first subscribers and Korea Telecom acquired 53.4% of the shares for US$ 13.3 million and Samsung paid US$ 5.2 million for 20% of NTC's shares. NTC had licences for local calling, cellular telephone and other radio services in Vladivostok and neighboring areas. In 1998, NTC started expanding its service. With a loan from the EBRD of US$17 million and capital investment from Korea Telecom, NTC was expected to invest US$70 million in expanding and improving the provision of landline telephone services in Vladivostok and of GSM mobile services in Primorsky Krai. EBRD loan was received under guarantee from Korea Telecom, South Korea's state telecoms company. The US$70 million was expected to be invested over the 1998-2003 period. GSM 900 network was launched in December 1999. In 2001 Siemens has signed a contract to supply equipment worth $5 million - $8 million to develop the GSM-900/1800 network to be supplied in 2001-2003. During 2006, KT Corporation equity ownership interest in NTC increased from 72.5% at December 31, 2005 to 80.0% at December 31, 2006 due to the retirement of treasury stock of NTC. The rest of shares were held by Russian nominal shareholders and individuals. In May 2011, VimpelCom bought New Telephone Company from owners including South Korea's KT Corporation in a $420 million deal. http://www.vntc.ru/main.php - the web link to the site was broken (2007 update) http://www.kt.co.kr/eng/Inv/data/filling/2006%20Form%2020-F.pdf