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Russia’s Altimo to rebrand into L1 Telecom with foreign focus

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Russia’s VimpelCom decides against making own Internet messenger

MOSCOW, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Altimo, a holding owning and managing telecommunications assets of Russia’s Alfa-Group, will be rebranded into L1 Telecom and will invest into new projects apart from its traditional firms Vimpelcom Ltd., the sole owner of mobile operator VimpelCom, and Turkish cellular operator Turkcell, business daily Vedomosti reported Tuesday.

Altimo has performed the task, set by its shareholders, and created a large international telecom holding, CEO Alexei Reznikovich told the daily.

Reznikovich said that VimpelCom Ltd. is an international company despite the fact that it continues working in Russia and gets a third of its revenue from the local market. Now, the renewed Altimo should adjust its management model, and the process will take time as the company has been formed via mergers and acquisitions rather than an organic growth.

L1 Telecom will be interested in telecom assets, as well as in Internet companies and firms dealing with data storage and procession. “They are of our interest from the point of view of synergy between these branches, adjacent to the telecom field," Reznikovich said.

L1 Telecom will study some options for deals in the US, mainly in the Internet sphere, in Europe and Africa. The company is also interested in domestic assets, he said. L1 Telecom will open an office in London and focus on the assets, 80% of which are located beyond Russia.

Amid adjacent assets, L1 Telecom should be interested in instant messengers and other mobile applications, which are abundant in the US, Raiffeisenbank analyst Sergei Libin said.

The African market is popular for mobile commerce projects, Otkritie Financial Corporation analyst Alexander Vengranovich said.

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Internet & Telecom Telecommunications Vimpelcom

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