Vimpelcom expects to stabilize market share, return to active growth in two years - CEO
MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Vimpelcom , which has now closed its infrastructure lag behind its rivals among Russia's top three mobile operators, is moving to the second phase of its development strategy, aimed at improving the customer experience.
About two years will be needed to change users' perception of Vimpelcom, after which the company will enter a new phase of growth, Jo Lunder, the CEO of Vimpelcom Ltd, the sole owner of the Russian operator, said in an interview with Interfax.
In terms of the network, the company is confident that it has now achieved the same level of quality as its two main rivals, and now it is more a question of customers' perception, as it always takes some time for users to appreciate new network quality, he said. This is more about what people are used to thinking and what they continue to think about the company by inertia, so the most serious challenge this year is to show users that Vimpelcom's network is actually just as good as those of its rivals, Lunder said.
He said this would take 2014-2015. This two-year project, the second phase of Vimpelcom's development, is focused on improving the customer experience, stabilizing the subscriber base, after which the company should see the start of new growth, Lunder said.
After these two years, the stabilization of Vimpelcom's market share in Russia will be a good result, he said. The company had a 24% market share by subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2013, compared to 30% at Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and 28% at MegaFon .
Lunder said he is confident that the management team formed by Mikhail Slobodin, who was named head of Vimpelcom in September 2013, will meet the challenges it faces. Just as before former Vimpelcom head Anton Kudryashov achieved his objectives, which included cutting costs, Lunder said.
The company does not currently have any significant plans to cut costs and it can focus on improving investing in the quality of the 3G network, building the LTE network, improving the customer experience and expanding distribution while keeping expenditures at a stable level, Lunder said, commenting on the results of Kudryashov's tenure and the goals of the new team.
