Vimpelcom growth squeezed by regulatory pressures

* Total (NYSE: TOT - news) revenue down 1 percent in Q3 at $5.7 billion

* Growth lags targets

* Net (Berlin: NETK.BE - news) profit halves on deferred tax provision

MOSCOW, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Vimpelcom (NasdaqGS: VIP - news) , Russia's third biggest mobile operator, said on Wednesday competition and tougher regulations hit sales growth in the third quarter.

The company's biggest market is Russia, but it has moved into emerging markets, including countries in Africa and Asia and also in continental Europe, where it owns Wind in Italy. The expansion has left the group with more than $20 billion in debt.

Regulatory pressures in Africa and Asia as well as reduced fees that its Italian business Wind can charge rivals to use its network contributed to a 1 percent fall in third-quarter revenue to $5.7 billion.

"We see increased government pressure and see effects of regulations, some of the markets are slowing down, and right now the year-to-date growth is below the three-year objective that we have set ourselves," Chief Executive Jo Lunder told Reuters.

He said the company, which previously said it was targeting mid-single digit revenue growth for the next three years, would give updated guidance at the end of January 2014.

The new regulatory pressures included increased electricity tariffs and petroleum prices in Pakistan and tightening of regulations of voice calls via internet in Bangladesh. These came on top of intensified price competition in Italy where its rivals are Telecom Italia (Amsterdam: TIT.AS - news) , Vodafone Italia and Hutchison Whampoa (Berlin: HUWA.BE - news) 's 3 Italia business.

Lunder said Vimpelcom, which lags rivals MTS and Megafon (MCX: MFON.ME - news) in Russia, would continue to look at consolidation opportunities in several of its markets but stressed that a further expansion within Europe was not high on its list of priorities.

"Vimpelcom's priority right now is first of all to focus on the markets we are in. We will focus on good, solid performance in our markets, also on deleveraging the balance sheet and also to keep our pledge on dividend payments," he said.

The company, whose biggest shareholder is Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's Altimo group, had net debt of $22.5 billion as of Sept. 30.

Vimpelcom reported a $255 million net profit attributable to shareholders for the three months ended Sept. 30, down 53 percent from $538 million a year ago.

Earnings were hit by a deferred tax provision related to future dividend payments from Vimpelcom's Russian business to its parent. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 2 percent to $2.5 billion, with an EBITDA margin falling to 43.5 percent from 44 percent.

The company also declared an interim dividend of $0.45 per share and will return to shareholders, which also includes Norway's Telenor (Oslo: TEL.OL - news) - a total of $791 million.