Capital Research Global Investors funds cut MTS stake from 5.2% to 3.5% in 2012
MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) - Funds managed by Capital Research Global Investors (CRGI), which is part of Capital Research and Management Company, reduced their stake in Russian top-three cellular provider OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) from 5.2% to 3.5% in 2012, according to MTS materials presented to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As of December 31, CRGI owned 71.763 million MTS shares, or 3.5% of its charter capital.
At the start of last year, CRGI funds held 108.375 million MTS shares, or 5.2% of capital.
Based on current quotes on the NYSE - $20.15 per ADR (American depositary receipts), one receipt corresponding to two shares - the market value of 3.5% of MTS is $723 million.
Almost the entire MTS stake under CRGI's ownership was distributed among five funds by the end of 2012. Among those five funds are: Capital World Growth and Income Fund with 14.649 million ADR (1.418%), Capital Income Builder with 12.68 million ADR (1.228%), EuroPacific Growth Fund with 5.337 million ADR (0.516%), American Funds Global Balanced Fund with 1.307 million ADR (0.126%) and New World Fund with 500,000 ADR (0.048%).
MTS is the largest mobile operator by number of users in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with over 100 million clients.
Vladimir Evtushenkov's AFK Sistema owns 50.8% of MTS, and the rest is in free float. The company's shares have been traded on the NYSE since July 2000 and on the Moscow Exchange since November 2003.
MTS has charter capital of 2.066 billion shares, par value 10 kopecks each.