Daily analyst comments

On April 6 news agencies wired that Sistema Telecom's general director and Svyazinvest's board member Sergey Shchebetov told reporters that in April or May telecom holding Svyazinvest's Board of Directors will review the corporate development strategy, which is being drafted by consulting group McKinsey & Co. In accordance with preliminary data, this document will involve several options for the company's development for both the mid-term (3-5 years) and long term (up to 15 years). Issues which will be raised in the strategy will concern both shareholder-related, financial and operating problems (promotion of one or another technology, actions undertaken by competitors, etc.).

We read this news item as hopeful. It's an open secret that currently Svyazinvest is associated with a certain degree of uncertainty which hampers the development of its subsidiaries and looks like a time mine. In the first place, this is due to uncertainty relative to the promotion of broadband Internet access and wireless services at RTOs, vague prospects for NG and WiMAX-3G networks, and also the lack of synergy among RTOs. In such a competitive industry as telecommunication, deceleration in decision-making could lead to major losses in the future. Therefore the approval of a strategy worked out by an internationally recognized consultancy could be greeted enthusiastically by the investment community and RTOs could see new expansion prospects.