VimpelCom CEO: Still No Clarity On Future Of His Job

MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- The chief executive of Russia's OAO Vimpel Communications Alexander Izosimov said Tuesday his position is unclear after Oct. 1 when his contract expires.

He said there may be some clarity on the issue after the next board of directors' meeting in late August, adding that the board hasn't offered to extend his contract.

"To stay in the company, I need to see that the board agrees on key strategic issues of where to take the company from here," Izosimov told reporters.

Izosimov, who is widely considered to be responsible for recent market share and revenue successes of Russia's second-largest mobile phone operator, said earlier this summer that he may have to leave the company due to a bitter conflict between its two largest shareholders - Norway's Telenor and Russia's Alfa Group.

Telenor and Alfa are fighting for control of VimpelCom and its other joint venture Ukraine's Kyivstar as the two markets offer high growth.

Izosimov was drawn into the conflict when Telenor took him to court in a bid to block VimpelCom's acquisition of a Ukrainian company URS.

"Watching which one of the shareholders wins is more entertaining from the outside than from the inside," he said.

Joking aside, Izosimov said he would like the board to give him a clear timeframe of no more than 12 months within which Alfa and Telenor could resolve their conflict over VimpelCom.

He thinks that one of the factors that may push Telenor to resolve the Russian dispute is the Norwegian operator's ambition to take part in the forthcoming telecom sector privatization in Vietnam.

"Telenor clearly wants to participate in what promises to be a very expensive, very competitive exercise and won't want a conflict in Russia to distract it," Izosimov said.

Should he stay, he wants to chose a challenge for VimpelCom, for instance to reach the capitalization of $14 billion to $15 billion, which would put it in international top 500 stocks.

"Such goals need radical moves - expansions and acquisitions - that is why consensus on the board is crucial," he said.

Company Web site: http://www.vimpelcom.com

-By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 974 80 55; anna.galitsina@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 1st August 2006