* Two major operators report rouble revenue increases
* Vimpelcom, Comstar beat margin forecasts
* Vimpelcom has paid down three-quarters of 2009 debt due
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By Anastasia Teterevleva and Melissa Akin
MOSCOW, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Telecom firms Vimpelcom and Comstar on Thursday became the latest Russian companies to beat profitability forecasts in second-quarter numbers and analysts called them all but recession-proof.
"I don't call it a crisis anymore. It's a normal environment," Boris Nemsic, chief executive of Vimpelcom, Russia's No.2 cellphone network, told a news conference.
Vimpelcom, part-owned by Norway's Telenor, also announced it had mostly cleared this year's $2 billion debt hurdle, helping its shares rise nearly 5 percent in New York.
Vimpelcom net profit clocked in at 22.6 billion roubles, or $702.5 million at an average rate of 32.17 roubles per dollar for the period. A year earlier, it reported net profit of $470 million.
Vimpelcom executives said on a conference call with investors that the company maintained its guidance on margins in the high 40s.
Foreign exchange gains included in the profit were in line with forecasts in dollar terms of $341 million.
On the core earnings level, it reported a margin of 50.6 percent, compared with a consensus forecast of 48.9 percent.
"Vimpelcom's second-quarter 2009 results reflected the defensive nature of the telecom sector, and confirm that telecom services have become a utility and that customers are unwilling to reduce usage of telecom services," UralSib said in a note.
TARIFF RISE AT COMSTAR
Fixed-line operator Comstar, which provides Internet and premium television, managed to push through tariff increases, although some clients switched to cheaper plans.
Comstar reported net income of $30.0 million, against a Reuters poll forecast of $28.1 million and up sharply from the $12.6 million posted in the first three months of 2009.
In rouble terms, second-quarter profit was up 36 percent year on year.
Comstar's OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortisation) margin improved to 41 percent from 38.2 percent a year ago. Analysts had expected a margin of 39.1 percent.
Consolidated revenue for the quarter reached $363.6 million, up 19 percent year on year and broadly in line with forecasts.
The results chime with a strong beginning to the second-quarter company reporting season in Russia after a very weak start to the year, when recession sapped domestic demand and the rouble weakened.
Russian companies have so far managed to boost profitability and grow rouble revenues despite a 10.9 percent economic contraction in the second quarter.
They stood in contrast to food retailer X5, which had to cede margin to cut prices and keep customers coming in.
VIMPELCOM DEBT DOWN
Comstar is a competitor to Vimpelcom's fixed line division, consolidated early last year.
Vimpelcom's largest competitor MTS, like Comstar owned by the Sistema holding, is expected to bring its business model into line with Vimpelcom's by effectively taking over Comstar.
Vimpelcom ramped up its leverage to buy carrier Golden Telecom in a deal which closed last year, but is paying off debt ahead of schedule.
It paid off $1.417 billion of the $1.955 billion in debt due this year, its general director Alexander Torbakhov told the news conference, of which it repaid $435 million of its $684 million debt that falls due in the third quarter.
Its debt levels raised alarm when capital markets effectively closed to Russia in the crisis last year and the rouble fell, challenging an operator with rouble revenues and foreign debt.
"Our financial position is very solid. We have no problem with debt whatsoever," Torbakhov told a news conference.
(Reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva, Toni Vorobyova and Melissa Akin; Editing by David Holmes and Jon Loades-Carter)