Operator giant VimpelCom plans to closely monitor the performance of each of its recently-acquired networks from Wind Telecom and is adopting a ‘localised’ approach to managing each business as it determines how to best run a diverse range of mobile networks.

Following completion of the US$6 billion Wind Telecom acquisition last summer, VimpelCom is the world’s sixth-largest operator group in terms of connections.

In an exclusive video interview with Mobile World Live, VimpelCom’s CEO Jo Lunder said that the company – now present in more than 15 different countries, across both emerging markets and highly-penetrated regions – has adopted a “decentralised business model with a lot of resources and authority delegated to the operating units.” In fact, Lunder said the only area in which VimpelCom works as a centralised operation is in procurement, “because that is the main advantage in cross border transactions like this.”

Lunder stressed: “We have a decentralised business model because we have a fundamental belief that business is local. And for that reason every market is different. And we want to really make sure that we operate at the best way possible in each of these markets. Some places we don’t have a 3G network. Other places we’re about to roll-out 4G so that there is a lot of learning, there is a lot of knowledge sharing. There’s a lot of best practices ongoing right now within the VimpelCom group but every single strategy is based on maximum value creation for shareholders in each market we’re operating in.”

As VimpelCom adopts a different approach for each of the markets it is now present in, so the company is also scrutinising the performance of each operation. This is a topical point, in light of news this week that VimpelCom is to sell its minority interest in Vietnamese operator GTEL Mobile.

“We're doing a contribution analysis internally to look at how much each asset is contributing value to our shareholders and that analysis is right now being processed and it`s really too early to predict what`s going to be the outcome of that,” commented Lunder.

View the full interview here.