UMH's placement values holding at USD 300 mln, listing in Frankfurt

MOSCOW, May 27 - United Media Holding (UMH) has completed placement of a 15% equity stake for USD 45 mln, putting its MCap at USD 300 mln and becoming the first Ukrainian media company to list on a foreign stock exchange. Concorde Capital acted as sole financial advisor and bookrunner.

“Our consistent approach to strengthening leadership, superior growth and expansion into new markets became a strong argument for investors,” said UMH President Boris Lozhkin, on reasons why despite the global financial crisis the company was able to fetch a favorable valuation. “UMH regards attracting investments on the open market to be a strategic way to develop its business.”

In addition to a balanced development strategy, investors highly valued UMH's professional management, focus on the fast growing Russian and Ukrainian media markets, and its expansion into Belarus and Kazakhstan, said Oleksandr Omelchuk, Concorde Capital’s managing director of capital markets.

Omelchuk said, “The proceeds will allow UMH to gain a substantial competitive advantage and implement its development plans before IPO. This placement will facilitate UMH's ability to achieve the maximum possible valuation at IPO.”

GDRs began trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange today under Cyprus-registered parent Advantest PLC (A65_GF). The company sold a total 4.7 million GDRs (2:1 GDRs to ordinary shares) at USD 8.28 per GDR. More than thirty private investors and investment funds subscribed for the offering.

UMH is the umbrella for the Ukrainian Media Holding, a key player on the domestic radio and Internet market and Ukraine's leading publisher, and the Populyarnaya Pressa publishing house, one of the fastest growing Russian publisher.

The company plans to allocate proceeds from the private placement to further develop its business on the Russian and Ukrainian markets, with a focus on “new media’. UMH’s strategy plans to become one of the top-10 media companies in the CIS.

For Editors:

United Media Holding (UMH) is an international diversified media company. UMH owns the Ukrainian Media Holding group of companies and the Populyarnaya Pressa publishing house. It has operations in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. In total, UMH manages 38 brands and 83 media projects.

Ukrainian Media Holding operates four FM national radio networks and three local FM stations. It holds the largest share of the Kyiv radio advertising market and the second largest share of all Ukrainian network radio station advertising. It is the fifth largest Ukrainian Internet sports holding and operates the most popular sports portal . Ukrainian Media Holding among Ukraine's top print media players, with 13% of the advertising market and 33% of readership. The holding also owns the largest Ukrainian press retail chain and two printing facilities.

Populyarnaya Pressa publishing house entered the Russian market in 2003. It launched weekly TV guide Telenedelya in 2005, UMH's largest Russian media project and currently the #3 publication in Russia by readership and advertising volume. Populyarnaya Pressa also publishes Football – the most circulated sports magazine in Russia.

Concorde Capital is a full service investment company operating on the Ukrainian, Russian and CIS financial markets. In 2007, Thomson Extel’s Pan European Survey named Concorde Capital’s analytical team the Top Analytical Team covering Ukraine. In 2008, this team was named among the top-3 covering Ukraine and top-10 on European emerging markets by EMEA Institutional Investor. Concorde Capital is a leader in private placements and M&A deals, having attracted over USD 1 bln for Ukrainian companies in 2007. Concorde’s role in the sale of Elektron Bank to Austria’s Volksbank International earned the company Adam Smith Institute’s “Best Ukrainian M&A deal of 2007” award. Concorde Capital has attracted over USD 1 bln for leading Ukrainian companies over 2007.