Rostelecom requests FSA permission for listing on LSE
MOSCOW. Oct 11 (Interfax) - OJSC Rostelecom has sent a request to the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) for listing its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the company told Interfax.
Rostelecom could receive the listing by the end of March 2012, although Rostelecom President Alexander Provotorov has said that Rostelecom plans to have received a listing by the end of this year.
The company has no plans to place its shares, but the listing will allow minority shareholders in Rostelecom to covert local shares to GDRs. This would help the telco expand its investor base, since many foreign investment funds cannot invest in local shares owing to their own internal regulations, Provotorov said.
At the end of September, Rostelecom submitted an application with Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) for the overseas circulation of its preferred shares. The application was for 60.707 million prefs in the telco (24.99% of total prefs). The organizer of Rostelecom's depositary receipt program is JPMorgan, and the shares would be listed on the LSE. Rostelecom received permission in May to circulate 24.99% of its common shares (735.8 million shares) outside of Russia.
Rostelecom's main shareholder is the state company Svyazinvest, which owns 40.0687% of Rostelecom's capital and 43.37% of its common shares. Vnesheconombank (VEB) owns 2.26% of Rostelecom's capital and 2.45% of its voting shares, and it also manages the Deposit Insurance Agency's (DIA) stakes of 6.86% and 7.43%, respectively,.
Rostelecom's biggest minority shareholder is Gazprombank, which as of August 19, 2011 owned 7.83% of Rostelecom's capital and 8.4% of its common shares. According to unofficial information, Gazprombank holds its stake in the interests of the Marshall Capital fund, whose founder, Konstantin Malofeyev, was previously on Rostelecom's board of directors.
The state structures and Malofeyev have said that they do not intend to sell their Rostelecom assets on the LSE.
Another of Rostelecom's biggest shareholders is the former General Director of Svyazinvest Yevgeny Yurchenko, who left his position amid scandal in the fall of last year. At the annual shareholders meeting on June 27, Yurchenko voted for an 8.5% stake in Rostelecom's common shares. It is impossible to accurately calculate Yurchenko's stake in Rostelecom, since most of his shares are placed under repurchase agreements with various banks.
Yurchenko has said he intends to sell a part of his shares on the LSE.
Rostelecom has 2,943,258,269 issued common shares and 242,831,469 preferred shares, par value 0.0025 rubles.