Russia's VimpelCom won't cut investment program in 2025, company has enough funds for it - CEO

MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) - PJSC VimpelCom does not plan to reduce its investment program in 2025, as the company has sufficient internal funds to finance it, and most of its debt is at a fixed rate, which minimizes servicing costs despite the Central Bank of Russia's rate hikes, VimpelCom CEO Sergey Anokhin told reporters.

"At the moment, almost all of our debt is at a fixed rate. A small portion will switch to a floating rate in January, but it's an amount we can manage comfortably without scaling back our investment program. This allows us to focus on continuing our development cycle. We are actively discussing the company's growth phase," Anokhin said.

VimpelCom's board of directors will review the investment program as part of the company's 2025 budget by the end of this year, after which further details will be shared, he said.

The company does not plan to take on loans in 2025 and did not do so in 2024, he said.

"VimpelCom finances its investment program from its own cash flow. We have enough resources for our investment program. We even have the ability to scale it [the investment program] internally," he said.

However, partnerships have not been ruled out if interest in a large-scale project arises. "If we see an impressive project that is very large and requires partnerships in various formats, we will also consider such a possibility," Anokhin said.