Sistema Signs US$ 613.3 Million Standby Letter of Credit and Term Loan Facility

Sistema (LSE: SSA), the largest public diversified corporation in Russia and the CIS, which manages fast growing companies operating in the consumer services sector, today announced the signing of US$ 613.3 million syndicated multi-tranche loan facility (the "Facility”) with ABN AMRO. The Facility has a tenor of 3 years and is comprised of Standby Letters of Credit totaling US$ 358.3 million and a Term Loan of US$ 255 million, each to be repaid on an amortising basis. The Standby Letters of Credit carry an annual interest rate of LIBOR plus 240 bps and Term Loan Facility – of LIBOR plus 265 bps. The purpose of the Facility is to fund Sistema’s capital injection into its Indian subsidiary, Shyam Telelink Limited, as well as to facilitate raising debt on the local market to finance its growth. Alexey Buyanov, Senior Vice President, CFO, commented: "We are very pleased that Sistema's debut syndicated deal on the loan markets received such a strong response. We also want to thank all of the banks which participated in this important deal, as well as ABN AMRO as our lead arranger. This deal clearly indicates that the investment community endorses Sistema's long term strategy and supports us even during difficult market conditions.” Hasan Mustafa, Executive Director and Head of CEEMEA Loans Syndicate & Sales at ABN AMRO Bank N.V., added: "In the midst of turbulent markets Sistema has proven to the financial community that it is an attractive asset from a risk-return as well as relationship perspective. In addition, having a portion of the deal in an unfunded format helped mitigate the funding cost issues for Lenders.” ABN AMRO acted as Mandated Lead Arranger and Bookrunner of the Facility. RBS acted as the Facility Agent. BNP PARIBAS, CALYON, Credit Suisse International, ICICI Bank Limited, Singapore Branch, ING Bank N.V. and Joint-Stock Company Banque Société Générale Vostok all acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers. OJSC GAZPROMBANK acted as Lead Arranger, Natixis Bank (ZAO) and RZB Group as Arrangers. MKB Bank Zrt. acted as Co-Arrangers and HSBC Bank plc was a Lead Manager. For further information, please visit www.sistema.com Sistema is the largest public diversified corporation in Russia and the CIS, which manages fast growing companies operating in the consumer services sector and has over 100 million customers. Sistema develops and manages market-leading businesses in selected service-based industries, including telecommunications, technology, banking, real estate, retail and media. Founded in 1993, the company reported unaudited revenues of US$ 13.7 billion for the full year of 2007, and total assets of US$ 28.4 billion as at December 31, 2007. Sistema's shares are listed under the symbol "SSA" on the London Stock Exchange, under the symbol "AFKS" on the Russian Trading System (RTS), under the symbol "AFKC" on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), and under the symbol "SIST" on the Moscow Stock Exchange (MSE). Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Sistema. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as "expect,” "believe,” "anticipate,” "estimate,” "intend,” "will,” "could,” "may” or "might” the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Many factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, general economic conditions, our competitive environment, risks associated with operating in Russia, rapid technological and market change in our industries, as well as many other risks specifically related to Sistema and its operations. Information contained in this announcement does not constitute a public offer or an advertisement of securities in Russia, is not an offer, or an invitation to make offers, to purchase any securities in Russia. The reverse convertible certificates have not been and will not be registered in Russia and are not intended for "placement” or "public circulation” in Russia.