MTS to buy back shares for 20 bln rbl, Sistema to keep interest

MOSCOW, Sep 6 (PRIME) -- The board of directors of major Russian mobile operator MTS has approved a new round of its buyback initiative, and the operator plans to purchase its shares and American depositary shares (ADSs) for up to 20 billion rubles in total on the open market by April 2019, the company said on Wednesday in a statement.

“The repurchase plan will be carried out by the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Stream Digital. 20,000,000,000 rubles is equal to approximately U.S. $345,721,694 translated at the central bank’s exchange rate of 57.85 rubles to $1.00 as of September 6, 2017,” MTS said.

The plan comes into effect on Wednesday and is effective until April 2019.

Sistema Finance, a Luxembourg subsidiary of MTS’ main shareholder, Sistema, also entered a sale and purchase agreement with Stream Digital. As a result of the buyback, interest and voting power of Sistema and its affiliated entities in MTS “will be substantially equal to Sistema’s and such affiliates’ ownership as at the date of the commencement of the repurchase plan.”

MTS’ board of directors endorsed in April a three-year buyback program for up to 30 billion rubles in total. The operator held two rounds in late 2016–early 2017 for 10 billion rubles in total.

(57.8503 rubles – U.S. $1)

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