Vimpelcom CEO replaced by former TNK-BP VP
MOSCOW. Sept 4 (Interfax) - Mikhail Slobodin, the former head of electricity group IES Holding and executive vice president of oil company TNK-BP , has replaced Anton Kudryashov as CEO of top-three Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom , parent company Vimpelcom Ltd said in a press release on Wednesday.
Kudryashov has been appointed to the group's executive board as chief group business development and portfolio officer effective October 14. In his new role, Kudryashov will be based at Vimpelcom Ltd headquarters in Amsterdam and be responsible for business development and mergers and acquisitions, as well as strategic business control.
Kudryashov, who formerly headed CTC Media, of which Alfa Group was a co-owner, was appointed CEO of Vimpelcom Ltd's Russian unit in January 2012 with a three-year contract. In his new position, his contract has been extended to December 31, 2016.
"I am very pleased that Anton has accepted our offer to join the Group Executive Board. Under his strong leadership our business in Russia has reversed the negative trends of the previous years and has significantly strengthened its market position, through closing the gaps in products and services as well as successfully launching and executing key strategic projects aimed at improving the efficiency of the operations and achieving a superior customer experience. Anton will have much to contribute from his new position on the Executive Board and will be advising on the execution of our Value Agenda," Vimpelcom Ltd CEO Jo Lunder said in the press release.
Lunder said in early August that he did not intend to replace Kudryashov. He made the statement following media reports that one of Vimpelcom Ltd's principal shareholders, Altimo, the telecom arm of Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, was unhappy with Russian division's results and was looking for a new chief executive. Business daily Vedomosti, citing sources, said two candidates were being considered - Slobodin and Mikhail Khabarov, president of A1, Alfa's investment division.
Alfa's displeasure may have been due to the slow growth of Vimpelcom's business in Russia, which in 2010 ceded second place to MegaFon and has remained in third place ever since. Kudryashov said in an interview with Interfax in July that the company plans to catch up with chief rivals Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and MegaFon in the first or second quarter of 2014 in terms of the size of its 3G network and accelerate subscriber acquisition in order to increase its share of the Russian market. In the second quarter of 2013, Vimpelcom's share of total mobile services revenue in Russia grew for the first time in years, AC&M reported, but it still remained behind its main rivals.
Altimo issued a statement Wednesday noting the positive trend in Vimpelcom's Russian business.
"We see a positive trend in how the Russian business is developing in recent quarters. The team led by Anton has managed to demonstrate intelligent strategic planning and strong execution. We supported the decision of the group's management to invite Anton to join the group executive board and take a position where he can apply best Russian practices and fully display his management skills. We thought it logical for a representative of the group's largest business to join the group's executive board with broad powers," Altimo vice president Yevgeny Dumalkin told Interfax.
Slobodin is also familiar with Alfa Group, one of Vimpelcom's principal shareholders, through his work at TNK-BP. He joined the oil company in 2011 as executive vice president and was in charge of power and gas. Prior to this, from 2002 to 2010, he headed IES Holding, the electricity division of Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group. He began his management career in 1998 as head of the foreign economic relations department at aluminum company Sual. Slobodin has not worked in the telecommunications industry before.
"Mikhail is an accomplished and recognized leader with many significant achievements in his career. We welcome him to Vimpelcom and I look forward to successful implementation of the already launched strategic initiatives to the further growth of our Russian business under his guidance," Lunder said in the press release.
Kudryashov told Interfax through the company's press service that in the transition period he sees his "main objective as ensuring the necessary continuity in management and the strategic course of the Russian business unit and helping Mikhail and the Russian team as much as possible to get through the period of adaptation."
"I accepted the offer from headquarters and agreed to take the position of Chief Group Business Development & Portfolio Officer and join the Group Executive Board, since the range of my challenges in this position interests me both in scale and complexity. I will have the opportunity to apply best Russian business practices at the group level and realize the management competencies that were not fully applied in Russia. I see this appointment as an acknowledgement of the success and effectiveness of the Russian business unit's development under my leadership," Kudryashov said.
Frequent changes in CEO are typical for Vimpelcom. In the past ten years, the Russian company has been headed by current Vimpelcom Ltd CEO Jo Lunder, Alexander Izosimov (twice), the duo of Boris Nemshich and Alexander Torbakhov and again Jo Lunder.
OJSC Vimpelcom is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vimpelcom Ltd, and is the latter's largest business unit, generating about 40% of revenue. Vimpelcom Ltd's principal shareholders are Norway's Telenor with a 33% economic interest and 43% of votes, and Alfa Group's Altimo with 56.2% and 47.9% respectively.
Vimpelcom had 57.1 million subscribers in Russia at the end of the second quarter of 2013, according to AC&M. The company also provides mobile and fixed telecom services in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine. Together with these country's the Russian business unit's subscriber base is 106.93 million.