Rotenburg structure to buy 10.7% of Rostelecom from MarCap
MOSCOW. March 29 (Interfax) - A structure belonging to Arkady Rotenburg plans in the near future to acquire 10.7% of Russian telecoms company OJSC Rostelecom from Marshall Capital fund, a spokesman for the businessman told Interfax.
Legally binding documents on the deal were singed at the end of February. Marshall Capital, which is controlled by Konstantin Malofeev, sold the Rostelecom stake, which it owned through the fund Universal Telecom Investments Strategies, to Rotenburg structure Bellared Holdings Ltd. According to unofficial information the price per share was 150 rubles and the entire deal was worth 47.2 billion rubles.
MarCap received the opportunity to sell the stake in Rostelecom in early February after a London court lifted a ruling by which the fund's assets had been frozen over 18 months ago. The shares were frozen due to the VTB Capital lawsuit filed against MarCap over Nutritek (Malofeev's fund was a co-onwer of this company) and regarding the repayment of a $225 million loan.
Other jurisdictions followed suit after the London court lifted the asset seizure, the fund said Friday. The last decision to unfreeze the assets was made in a court in the Virgin Islands. Earlier, assets were also unfrozen in Cyprus and even earlier, in 2012, in the Cayman Islands.
Three representatives of the new shareholder were nominated to the board of directors for election at the AGM: Rotenberg himself, National Chemicals Group CEO Nikolai Sabitov and SMP Bank President Artyem Obolensky.
The candidates were nominated by Gazprombank , the nominal holder of the MarCap stake, as ownership rights to this stake has not yet been transferred to Bellared Holdings.
Among the candidates put forward by Gazprombank are Yevgeny Roitman, the owner of Antares, which is involved in a legal battle with the Telecoms Ministry over LTE frequencies, Sberbank Capital CEO Ashot Khachaturyants, OJSC Gazprom Gas Distribution Deputy CEO Elena Kataeva, Gazprombank First Vice President Anatoly Milyukov and Department Head at the bank Alexander Pchelintsev.
Rotenberg said the purchase of Rostelecom shares was a long-term investment for him. "The company has considerable potential both in terms of business development and capitalization growth. We support the company's strategy aimed at optimizing capital and operating costs, increasing their position on the mobile phones market, expanding electronic government services and holding a leading position on the broadband market," he said.
Rotenberg and members of his family own Strogazmontazh, SMP Bank, a share in Mostotrest and various other structures. The Rotenberg brothers controls leading Russian pipe trader - LLC North European Pipe Project with annual revenue of 11 billion rubles and net profit of 12 billion rubles.
