MTS buys back 88% of 5th-series bonds for 13.2 bln rubles under offer
MOSCOW. July 27. (Interfax) - Russian top-3 cellular provider OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has bought 13,212,111 fifth-series bonds from investors in the framework of a buyback offer, spending 13.2 billion rubles for 88% of the 15-billion-ruble issue, the company said in a press release.
The telecommunications operator placed the seven-year bonds under open subscription on the MICEX-RTS stock exchange in July 2009. VTB and Gazprombank organized the placement.
The bonds, with face value of 1,000 rubles, have seven annual coupons. The first through third coupons were given a 14.25% per annum rate at placement, and the fourth through seventh were assigned 8.75% pa.
Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) registered the bonds issue in January 2009.
MTS also has another six issues of classical bonds worth a total of 70 billion rubles in circulation.
MTS is the largest mobile operator in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in terms of its client base, with over 100 million users in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus.