Polymetal pledges 6.6% of shares as part of REPO deal with Otkritie
MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) - OJSC Polymetal's subsidiary, Polymetal ESOP Ltd, signed a REPO deal with Otkritie Securities Ltd in September, pledging 34,450,357 shares or around 6.62% of the group's capital worth $250 million, the silver and gold miner company said in materials.
The date of the repurchase is August 31, 2012. The margin on the selling price has been set as Libor+2.75%.
The deal took place in three tranches: 9.1 million shares ($66 million) on September 6; 11.9 million shares ($89 million) on September 13; and 13,450,357 shares ($95 million) on September 26.
The company used the funds raised to refinance short-term ruble-denominated debt, its vice president for development, Pavel Danlinin, said during a conference call.
Overall short-term debt was $216 million at the end of June 2011, the company said in its financial report o International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the period.
Polymetal could use another 2.1% for REPO. It said on September 6 that it could use up to 8.6% of its shares to raise funding via repo transactions. "To approve the opportunity to raise financing by entering into REPO transactions with respect to up to 34,450,375 ordinary shares of Polymetal, owned by Polymetal Esop Limited, Polymetal's subsidiary, with an interest rate not exceeding the sum of LIBOR in U.S. dollars plus a margin of 3% per annum, a term not exceeding one year, and allowing the company the right to accelerate the repurchase date at any time," Polymetal said at the time.
Polymetal has 399,375,000 issued ordinary shares. Going by data for the company as of May 1, 2011, the company will be using all its quasi-treasury shares.
Polymetal has told Interfax the instrument would add flexibility when refinancing the loan book "as repo grants access to faster and cheaper money."
Polymetal's GDR closed trading at $20.72 each on September 5.One GDR represents one share, so the quasi-treasury shares are worth $714 million.
As of May 1, the main Polymetal shareholders were Alexander Nesis's IST Group with 18.9% (via Powerboom Investments, the main owner of which is Quotan International), PPF Group N.V. with 19.6% (via Pearlmoon), Alexander Mamut with 10.7% (via Vitalbond), and MBC Development with 4.4%. Polymetal subsidiaries held 8.6% of the shares and free float was estimated at 37.8%, with global depository receipts representing around 12.8% of shares.