In December 2005, North-West Telecom (NWT), the leading telecommunications service provider in Russia's North-Western Federal District, successfully closed a EUR 50 million debut syndicated loan facility. Citigroup acted as Mandated Lead Arranger and Sole Bookrunner. ING Bank and Moscow Narodny Bank joined the facility as Mandated Lead Arrangers and Societe Generale joined the facility as Lead Arranger.

The Facility is unsecured and has a three-year tenor maturing in January 2009. The Facility is priced at EUROLIBOR plus a margin of 2 per cent per annum. The proceeds of the Facility have been used for financing of NWT’s network modernization and digitalization, expansion of zone communications networks in the regions as well as for the development of profitable services (dedicated and dialup Internet access, building corporate communications networks and implementation of xDSL broadband access).

According to NWT Chief Financial Officer, Venera Khusnutdinova: “This syndicated Euro deal is an unique event since North-West Telecom is the first company among regional telecom operators to take advantage to using large scale syndicated foreign currency financing. The Loan presented terms and conditions favorable for the Company. This successful debut on the international debt market enables NWT to further extend the range of long term financing instruments for the purpose of improving the Company's capital structure optimization”.

“North-West Telecom’s successful deal follows the impressive performance of the company. Therewithal an excellent precedent for the fixed line telecom sector in Russia as well,” adds Steven Fisher, Managing Director and Corporate Bank Head for Russia and the C.I.S. at Citigroup.

About Citigroup:

Citigroup (NYSE: C), the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage, and asset management.  Major brand names under Citigroup’s trademark red umbrella include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com