Based on OAO North-West Telecom 1H2005 performance, RID (Russia’s Institute of Directors -Expert RA (rating agency) has confirmed the telco’s Corporate governance score at “A” level. For the first time, this rating was assigned to the operator in January, 2005.

Since January 2004, RID-Expert RA consortium has been scoring corporate governance standards at 150-200 Russian companies based on the methodology developed by Russian and international specialists to evaluate criteria crucial to investors. To score a company, the agency employs public sources of information: the entity’s web site, quarterly issuer reports, annual report, publications in the media.

The fact that the telecom provider was reassigned an “A” score means that the level of ?orporate governance at OAO NWT is estimated as a rather high one, owing to the following reasons: the Company complies with the requirements of the Russian legislation in the area of corporate governance, follows the basic guidelines of the Russian Code of Corporate Conduct, while risks of infringing upon shareholders’ rights, poor performance of manageria bodies, and insufficient information transparency are marginal.

The experts of RID-Expert RA point out that OAO North-West Telecom pursues an active policy of corporate social responsibility, while its information disclosure and business transparency rank highest among the companies under review.

The latest results of the National corporate governance scoring can be viewed at https://www.raexpert.ru/ratings/corporate/

The National Scoring of Corporate Governance is a project by a consortium of Russia’s Institute of Directors and a rating agency Expert-RA. It is an independent expert analysis of companies’ compliance with key Russian and international standards of corporate governance in terms of safeguarding the shareholders’ rights, performance of managing and supervisory bodies, information disclosure and consideration of other stakeholders’ interests.