Kommersant: "AFK Sistema Goes on a Spending Spree"
Communications
In the first quarter of this year, AFK Sistema plans to make big purchases worth "billions of dollars." "We'll have big purchases in this quarter requiring billions of dollars," said Vladimir Yevtushenkov, chairman of the board and Sistema's main shareholder, in the back rooms of the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 29, 2009.
Mr Yevtushenkov declined to specify the sectors or the exact sum to be spent. "Surely, there'll be more than one billion," he said, adding that the holding may attract both Russian and foreign banks' funds to finance its transactions.
Interfax
Sistema also hopes to reach an agreement on Svyazinvest
This year, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, head of AFK Sistema, hopes to reach an agreement with the Government on the future of a 25% stake in the telecommunications holding Svyazinvest held by the corporation. When asked whether this will be done this year, Mr Yevtushenkov said that "it will most probably be so." In late October, he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with a proposal for the government to buy out the corporation's 25% plus one share stake in Svyazinvest.
Leonid Melamed, Sistema's president, explained in December that the corporation wanted, above all, to be confident of its future, not just to sell its stake in Svyazinvest. Mr Melamed believes that participation in the further privatisation of Svyazinvest is the most attractive option for Sistema.
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Dell not welcome in Russia
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not support the intention of the US computer firm Dell to expand its business in Russia, The Wall Street Journal reports. During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Michael Dell, the company's CEO, tried to reach an agreement on the expansion of his company's activity in Russia. The company's growth has declined considerably since 2006 and Michael Dell has been trying to revive it, seeking new growth in the fast-growing markets of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). In Davos, Michael Dell asked Vladimir Putin how companies like Dell could help Russia to improve its IT systems. Mr Putin's reply was terse. "We are not invalids," he said. "We don't have limited mental capacity." Thus, Vladimir Putin made it clear that Mr Dell may want to drop the "R" from BRIC, The Wall Street Journal says.
