NEW YORK-Vimpel-Communications, a Russian wireless telecommunications company, went public on the New York Stock Exchange Nov. 15 with an offering of 5.4 million American Depository Shares priced at $20.50 each. Each ADS equals three-quarters of a share of common stock.
The initial price was much higher than the $15.75 to $18.75 anticipated range in the company’s preliminary offering statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By the end of the first trading day, the ADRs had surged to $29.25. It closed Nov. 17 at $31.
The number of shares offered also was somewhat larger than the 5.24 million ADS anticipated a few weeks before the sale date.
Vimpel-Com markets cellular telephone services under the Bee Line brand name in the greater Moscow metropolitan area, which has a population of more than 15 million. The carrier had about 45,000 subscribers as of Sept. 30.
Vimpel-Com said it operates the only Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service (D-AMPS) 800 MHz cellular system in the Moscow license area, and is the only company granted a license for personal communications services in that area. D-AMPS uses Time Division Multiple Access technology.
Dmitri Zimin, Vimpel-Com President, indirectly controls KBI, another Russian company, that holds the PCS license for the Moscow area. He formerly was a senior member of Moscow’s Mintz Radio Technical Institute, a government-owned defense institute involved in developing high-technology radio and defense equipment. After the IPO, Zimin retained control of nearly 60 percent of Vimpel-Com’s voting shares.
