Russia’s MTS to buy back 9 bln rbl stock, from Sistema as well

MOSCOW, Jan 17 (PRIME) -- Russian mobile operator MTS will spend 9.3 billion rubles to buy back common shares and American depositary shares (ADS), including from its majority shareholder Sistema, via the operator’s fully-owned unit, Stream Digital, MTS said Tuesday in a statement.

Of the total, MTS can pay up to 4.647 billion rubles for shares to minority shareholders and up to 4.652 billion rubles to multi-industry holding Sistema.

The shares may be offered within a price range of 253–283 rubles per share. The lower margin implies a discount of 3.9% and the upper margin implies a premium of 7.5% to the closing price of 263.35 rubles on Monday.

The tender offer will be implemented through a Dutch auction with a strike price mechanism. All successfully tendered shares will be acquired at the strike price.

The tender offer will expire at 10.00 a.m. Moscow time on February 15 for common stock and at 5.00 p.m. New York City time on February 14 for ADSs unless the deal is extended, with proceeds expected to be dispatched to holders of common shares between February 20 and March 14, and to ADS holders on or about February 28.

Sistema Finance, a subsidiary of Sistema, also agreed not to tender or sell any common shares in the offer and instead agreed to sell to Stream Digital, following completion of the offer, a pro rata number of shares based on the final number of purchased shares, so that Sistema’s ownership and voting power in MTS remain unchanged.

Sistema now owns 49.74% in the capital of MTS, or 993,961,917 common shares.

(59.6067 rubles – U.S. $1)

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