VTB to sell shares it purchased during buyback on market - Zadornov
MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - VTB Pension Administrator will sell the VTB shares, which it recently purchased during a buyback from minority shareholders in the bank's 'people's' IPO, on the market, President and CEO of VTB 24 Mikhail Zadornov told journalists on Friday.
"The shares will later be sold on the market," he said, adding that it has not yet been determined when the shares will be sold.
Shareholders with less than 500,000 rubles in VTB stakes will have to sell their stakes in full - they will not be able to keep even one share for participation in meetings, he said.
No decision has yet been made to hold a buyback of GDR (global depositary receipts). "The issue is being discussed, but as of today there is no decision," Zadornov said.
VTB Pension Administrator LLC officially announced on March 2 the buyback of VTB shares from holders that bought the shares during the 'peoples IPO' in 2007. The purchase price is 13.6 kopecks per share, and VTB Pension Administrator will buy not more than 500,000 rubles worth of stock from any one seller (maximum of 3,691,471 shares).
No decision as to a buy-up of global depository receipts has yet been made, and VTB is consulting on this matter with international legal firms, VTB chief Andrei Kostin said last month. The offer published in the paper says that "the buyer has the right, but is not obligated, to take action he feels is necessary in any case."
The buy-back from 'peoples IPO' participants could run to 0.7%-0.8% of the bank's charter capital. VTB stock free float is 24.5%.
Shareholders on the register as of February 1, 2012 are eligible to sell. They number 114,000, of whom 105,000 can sell all the stock they hold.
Zadornov said that some 121,000 people were involved in the IPO.
Of the 114,000 private stockholders, 95,000 have more than 1,000 rubles worth of shares and the rest less. If all 114,000 make their shares available for purchase, the bank could spend as much as 16 billion rubles. "I can say confidently that the payout amount will be less than those estimates made in prior months," Zadornov said. Shareholders with less than 1,000 rubles worth of stock will likely not offer their shares for sale, he said. The overall value of the stock held by the 95,000 people with more than 1,000 rubles worth runs to about 13 billion rubles, he said.
"If the stakes of the 95,000 people are calculated, buying their shares will take 13 billion rubles," Zadornov said.
The lending organization's capital will provide the funds for the buyback, he said.
"VTB's capital will decrease, but not by 13 billion rubles [if the 95,000 investors' stakes of over 1,000 rubles worth are purchased]. The decrease in capital will occur after the sale of these shares on the difference between the buy-back price (13.6 kopecks) and the price at which the shares on the VTB Pension Administrator balance sheet are sold," he said, adding that the reduction of capital will be insubstantial.
Zadornov said that the buy-back can involve stock held by private individuals and legal entities, Russian residents and non-residents. Stockholders can sell shares they held on two dates: May 25, 2007 (the date of the VTB IPO) and February 1, 2012.
"Even if a person sold shares in the interim between these two dates, and then bought them and held them as of February 1, 2012, he has the right to present the shares for buy-back," he said. The minimum stake held on those two dates will be purchased, he said.
"Heirs that entered into their own by April 13 (the deadline for the offer) have the same right to participate in the buyback, as do those share owners who participated in the IPO in 2007," Zadornov said.
Bids for the buyback are being accepted between March 12 and April 13. All settlements with shareholders who participated in the IPO are planned to finish up by April 30, and with heirs - by June 29.
If minority shareholders made no transactions with shares in the period from April 24, 2007 to April 13, 2012, they will not be charged a sales tax during the buyback, VTB 24 said in its materials.
Zadornov stressed that there is no underlying political motive behind the buyback. "The subject of a buyback emerges every year. It was discussed by the supervisory board, at meetings with minority shareholders, at shareholders meetings. By no means did it arise in February at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs," he said.
It would be naive to assume that the decision to conduct a buyback was made at the order of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he said. "The subject of a buyback has been discussed in quite a lot of detail over the last three years, so to assume that this buyback was carried out exclusively at the order or desire of the prime minister would be quite naive for those people who closely follow such things," Zadornov said.
"It seems to me that from the generally accepted point of view on fairness and legal norms, the procedure I described to you and that we will use is absolutely a boon for the vast majority of shareholders," he said.
VTB said in a statement that shareholders who do sell in the buyback would probably not get dividends for 2011 as the offer and sale would close before the cut-off date for the AGM.
This year's AGM has not yet been scheduled, but last year's took place on June 3 and the register closed on April 21.