17 May 2013 17:46

Svyazinvest board schedules EGM over Rostelecom merger for June 20

MOSCOW. May 17 (Interfax) - The board of directors of Svyazinvest has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) for June 20 at which shareholders will vote on the merger with Rostelecom , the company said in a statement.

The Svyazinvest board had attempted to schedule the EGM for the merger at a meeting in April, but it was unable to because the main shareholder, state property agency Rosimushchestvo, did not manage to issue the required directives for state representatives on the board. Rosimushchestvo, for its part, blamed Svyazinvest for failing to submit required information on time.

Rostelecom shareholders will vote on the reorganization issue at a meeting on June 26.

The register of shareholders eligible to participate closes on May 17 for the Svyazinvest EGM and closed on May 15 for the Rostelecom meeting.

The Rostelecom reorganization, which will see Svyazinvest merged into it, is expected to be completed in October-November 2013.

Svyazinvest owns 41.84% of Rostelecom share capital and 45.29% of ordinary shares. For its part, Rostelecom has 25% plus one share in Svyazinvest and Rosimushchestvo has 75% minus one share.

Other shareholders in Rostelecom are Rosimushchestvo with 7.43% of ordinary shares (6.86% of share capital) and Vnesheconombank (VEB) has 2.45% (2.26%). Companies owned by Konstantin Malofeev's Marshall Capital own 10.7% of shares, which are nominally held by Gazprombank . Another 4.64% of ordinary shares (5.24% of charter capital) are owned by a Rostelecom subsidiary, Mobitel.