Ukrainian National Telecommunications Operator Ukrtelecom Sold to an Austrian Investment Company

KYIV, Ukraine, March 15, 2011 - Ukraine's State Property fund (SPF) has signed an agreement to
sell the largest state-owned telecommunications operator Ukrtelecom to ESU
LLC, a Ukrainian subsidiary of Austrian EPIC Concern. 92.79 percent of the
telecommunications giant was sold for approximately USD 1.3 billion.

The selling of Ukrtelecom became the biggest privatisation deal made so
far by the government of President Viktor Yanukovych, according to Reuters.

Earlier, Peter Goldscheider, one of EPIC's managing partners,
commented that this is a long-term investment and that his Vienna-based
privatization and investment company potentially plans to attract strategic
investors andlaunchthe initial public offering (IPO).It has been also
reported that along with the price of the agreement, the buyer adopted
responsibility to repay Ukrtelecom's loans (approx. USD 160million and UAH
3.7 billion) and carry out a number of investment commitments.

Last year,the SPF announced bidding for the privatization of
92.79 percent of the Ukrtelecomstocks. The ESU LLC, EPIC's Ukrainian
subsidiary was the only bidder, hence the auction has been cancelled.
Following the independent assessment of Ukrtelecom by a Ukraine-based
consulting company Ostrov, Ukraine offered EPIC the direct sale for UAH
10.575 billion (approx. USD 1.3 billion) and the offer has been accepted.

Ukrtelecom is a modern telecommunications company with
developed infrastructure that includes 33 branch offices and 373 departments.
As of today, Ukrtelecom controls about 80 percent of Ukraine's fixed-line
market and has a small mobile business Utelproviding services to more than
630,000 customers.Currently, Ukrtelecom possesses a license to provide
UMTS/WCDMA and 3G mobile services. In addition, Ukrtelecom has created the
most powerful high-capacity national data trunk network in Ukraine based on
the modern DWDM technology, with 4 GBits/sec transfer capacity.

The private Austrian investment company EPIC was founded in
1991 to provide consulting and investment services for conducting
privatizations in Central and Eastern Europe.

For more information, please contact Maryna Khorunzha +380443324784, news at wnu-ukraine.com, Project Manager at Worldwide News Ukraine