The report said it was an excellent year for VimpelCom business in Uzbekistan. In 2007, the company tripled its active subscriber base, and built its subscriber market share by more than 10 percentage points, reaching 37.3%. Revenue grew by 94.1%, and OIBDA margin remained strong at more than 50%.

In the fourth quarter, the revenue grew by 21.6% versus the third quarter, driven predominantly by a 33.6% sequential growth in the number of active subscribers. With SIM-card penetration passing 20%, the company will be focusing on capturing rapid subscriber growth in Uzbekistan.

The company’s net operating revenues reached US$107.449 million in 2007, an increase of 94.1% compared to 2006. Net income totaled US$ 8,241 million in 2007, an increase of 137.5% against to 2006.

OIBDA reached US$54,732 million in 2007 or increased by 70.6% year-on-year. OIBDA margin was 50.6% last year against to 57.7% in 2006. OIBDA is defined as operating income before depreciation and amortization. OIBDA margin is OIBDA expressed as a percentage of total net operating revenues.

The company said its ARPU in Uzbekistan made up US$7.1 in 2007 against US$11.9 in 2006, while MOU decreased from 320.5 minutes in 2006 to 274 minutes in 2007.

ARPU (Monthly Average Revenue per User) is calculated by dividing the Company’s service revenue during the relevant period, including roaming revenue and interconnect revenue, but excluding revenue from connection fees, sales of handsets and accessories and other non-service revenue, by the average number of the Company’s active subscribers during the period and dividing by the number of months in that period

MOU (Monthly Average Minutes of Use per User) is calculated by dividing the total number of minutes of usage for incoming and outgoing calls during the relevant period (excluding guest roamers) by the average number of active subscribers during the period and dividing by the number of months in that period.

VimpelCom said the number of active subscribers increased by 202.6% to 2.119 million users as of the end of 2007. The market share grew from 27.2% in 2006 to 37.3% in 2007.