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UPDATE 2-Vimpelcom to pay dividend as confidence picks up

Published 11/02/2009, 11:50 AM
Updated 11/02/2009, 11:54 AM

* Proposes 190.13 roubles per common share, $0.32 per ADS

* Flags confidence in Vimpelcom's financial position

* Vimpelcom stock rises 4 percent

(Adds analysts' comment, share price move, background)

By Maria Kiselyova

MOSCOW, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Russian mobile telecoms operator Vimpelcom is to pay out $324 million in interim dividends in a move which analysts said signalled the group's growing confidence in its financial strength amid improved capital markets and the end of a long-running shareholder war.

Vimpelcom, whose last full-year dividend was for 2007, said on Monday its board had recommended paying an interim dividend of 190.13 roubles ($6.55) per common share or $0.32 per American depositary share (ADS).

Analysts said the move showed financial markets were becoming easier to access and the group's management was gaining confidence that the Russian economy is becoming less of a threat to growth.

"It is an indication that the company is financially stable. Tensions between shareholders have abated, the worst apprehensions were not realised and the company may now loosen its tightened financial policy," Uralsib analyst Konstantin Chernyshov said.

Russian firms raised more than $2 billion from debt and capital markets this week and more borrowers are poised to follow suit shortly as investors are regaining their appetite for Russia amid oil price and rouble strength.

Russia's Alfa Group and Norway's Telenor -- both shareholders in Vimpelcom -- this month ended one of Russia's longest corporate wars by merging the group with their holdings in Ukrainian operator Kyivstar.

Vimpelcom's New-York listed stock rose 4 percent to $18.62 a share by 1538 GMT, outperforming its main rival, MTS.

NO NEED TO PRESERVE CASH

Viktor Klimovich, analyst at VTB Capital, also said the move signalled that Vimpelcom shareholders believed the sector would not suffer from the crisis and there is no need to preserve cash in case the situation worsens.

The global financial crisis has thrown Russia's once-booming economy into its first recession in a decade, virtually closing international credit markets to Russian companies and making them struggle with servicing and refinancing their debts.

The mobile sector has proved relatively recession-proof, and Russian wireless providers' weak start to the year was due mainly to foreign exchange losses on dollar-denominated debt.

A Reuters poll showed last week economists have turned more upbeat on Russia's prospects of returning to solid growth, thanks to interest rate cuts and a price rally of key export oil.

The total dividend payout for the nine-month period would thus amount to 9.75 billion roubles, or $324 million, compared with $588 million it paid in full-year 2007 dividends. (Additional reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by John Bowker and Greg Mahlich) ($1=29.04 roubles)

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