Kyivstar owner VEON promises to leave Russia in mid-October - Komarov
He said that Kyivstar employees feel "morally and psychologically difficult" due to comments about the possible nationalization of the operator
The president of Ukraine's largest telecommunications operator Kyivstar, Oleksandr Komarov, has confirmed the plans of the parent company VEON to completely withdraw from the Russian market no later than mid-October 2023.
Source. This is stated in a press release from Kyivstar on Wednesday.
"Despite the fact that the business in the Russian market brought VEON Group almost half of its annual income, the shareholders and management made the right decision, and we at Kyivstar strongly support it," he said.
The head of Kyivstar reminded that VEON had started preparations to leave Russia in November 2022. However, it took the group of companies headquartered in the Netherlands a long time to fulfill numerous legal procedures and requirements of EU, US and UK regulators, as VEON is listed on the Nasdaq (US) and Euronext (EU) stock exchanges and has shareholders in the US, EU and UK, Komarov noted.
He also emphasized that although VEON owns 100% of Kyivstar's shares, the Ukrainian telecom operator is fully autonomous in its operations: almost all key decisions are made by the company's board of directors, guided by the laws of Ukraine.
The CEO added that since the beginning of Russia's invasion, Kyivstar has already invested UAH 8.2 billion in the development of the country's telecom market, paid UAH 15.2 billion in taxes to the state, and provided support to government agencies, the military, security and law enforcement agencies in the amount of more than UAH 1.4 billion, as well as bonuses and services to subscribers at no additional cost worth UAH 577 million.
As reported, the head of Kyivstar said at a conference of the European Business Association on September 11 that the company and its employees were feeling "morally and psychologically difficult" because of comments about the possible nationalization of the operator, in particular from the deputy head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma.
"I am not a defender of the Russian owners, I am a defender of the Ukrainian company. Before the war, Kyivstar was the most efficient company in the world among 500 operators," Komarov said.
He reminded that VEON has not had a controlling shareholder since 2018, and the share of sanctioned shareholders, including Mikhail Fridman, is 48%, while 52% is distributed among a large number of shareholders, for example, 7-8% is owned by Exor, an Italian company owned by the Agnelli family.
"Kyivstar is Ukraine's largest electronic communications operator, serving 24.1 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.1 million Home Internet subscribers as of June 2023. The company provides services using a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G, Big Data, Cloud solutions, cybersecurity services, digital TV, etc.
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