Megafon shareholders to elect new board March 4
MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax) - Megafon will hold an extraordinary general meeting on March 4 to elect a new board of directors, the Russian mobile phone company announced.
The shareholder register for the meeting will close on December 6. Election of a new board is the only item on the agenda, and the deadline for submitting nominations to the board is February 1.
Megafon will hold another meeting on January 9 to approve a new regulation on the board of directors.
The company announced that the structure of the board of directors would change during preparations for its recent IPO.
It is thought the seven-member board will have two independent directors instead of one. It will also shed one representative of TeliaSonera. Ultimately, it will have three representatives of Alisher Usmanov's Garsdale, two of TeliaSonera and two independent directors. It is expected that the new independent director will be former British Treasury Minister Paul Myners.
The changes on the board of directors will reflect the new shareholder structure at Megafon following its IPO at the end of Megafon.
TeliaSonera sold 9.63% in the IPO, reducing its stake from 35.6% to 25.97%. It could sell another 0.96% if banks exercise their greenshoe option and cut its stake to 25.003%.
Megafon subsidiary Megafon Investments sold 3.9% and could sell another 0.4% in the option to reduce its stake from 14.4% to 10%.
Garsdale, of which 82% is owned by Usmanov and remaining shares are held by Russian Technologies and Telconet Capital, did not sell shares in the IPO and still owns 50% plus 100 shares.
The free float, currently 13.6%, could rise to just under 15% as the result of the greenshoe option.
