Rostelecom selects Uralsib for provision of 11 bln ruble guarantee in offer for minority shareholders in NTC
MOSCOW. March 15 (Interfax) - OJSC Rostelecom has selected Uralsib Bank to provide a guarantee worth 11 billion rubles, the company said in its materials.
In addition to Uralsib, Sberbank , VTB , Gazprombank and Nordea Bank to part in the auction for providing the guarantee.
The auction's winner offered a price of 0.234% of the bank guarantee for its services, down from a starting level of 0.65%.
The bank guarantee is needed for an offer to buy back stock in OJSC National Telecommunications (NTC) from its minority owners, Rostelecom earlier told Interfax.
At the start of February Rostelecom, OSJC Uralsvyazinform (URSI) and OSJC North West Telecom (three subsidiaries of Svyazinvest) completed the acquisition of 71.8% of the shares in NTC. Rostelecom will own this packet as of April 1 when it merges with other firms in the Svyazinvest Holding.
The transaction came to 27.907 billion rubles. The sellers were National Media Group, Surgutneftegas and Alexei Mordashov's Raybrook Ltd.
Based on the transaction's value, 100% in NTC came to 38.886 billion rubles ($1.325 billion).VTB owns 11.6% in NTC, Gazprombank and Sberbank Capital - each with 8.3%.
NTC Group includes several major providers of TV and broadband internet providers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Kurgan, Elektrostal and Sredneuralsk.
