|
Articles & publications
04.03.2010
Evgeny Yurchenko discloses his stake in CenterTelecomKommersant, Inna Erokhina
The director general of Svayzinvest Evgeny Yurchenko is one of the largest minority shareholders of the state holding’s subsidiaries – CenterTelecom, and his stake in the company’s common shares is equal to 7.4%. Yesterday, this equity position was worth RUR 2.65 bln on MICEX. Before this, Mr. Yurchenko’s largest holding in the state corporation was not thought to exceed 2%.
The fact that Mr. Yurchenko raised his stake in the charter capital of CenterTelecom from 1.57% to 5.82% and common shares from 1.33% to 7.41% was mentioned in a statement issued by the company. A source at Svyazinvest explains that these shares were owned by Mr. Yurchenko earlier, but were pledged as repo transactions. Based on a disclosure as of November 2, 2009 the largest minority shareholder of CenterTelecom was Russian Commercial Bank (part of the Gazprombank Group), which owned 21.58% of the company’s common shares. Another subsidiary of the state holding, VolgaTelecom, also recently announced that Mr. Yurchenko’s stake in the company’s common shares amounts to 2.57% (up from an earlier 1.95%).
Based on information concerning affiliated entities it follows that the director general of Svyazinvest owns 1.173% of Sibirtelecom’s common shares and 1.05% of North-West Telecom. The holding’s CEO also pointed out that he holds stakes in Southern Telecommunications Company (UTK), Far East Telecom and Uralsvyazinform, but it is not possible to estimate the number of shares since they are pledged as a result of repo transactions. Before Mr. Yurchenko was known to hold from 0.44% to 2% in the shares of regional telecommunications operators (RTOs) and approximately 1% of Rostelecom. Yesterday the total amount of stakes held by Yurchenko in four RTOs stood at about RUR 3.83 bln, while his stake in Rostelecom was worth another RUR 1.05 bln.
Aside from his commercial interest, Mr. Yurchenko also attributed his holdings in the equity capital of Svyazinvest’s subsidiaries to the fact that he is attempting to help minority shareholders of the state holding understand that as a manager he will not adopt any decisions which are at odds with his own interests as a shareholder. However, last autumn the Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) launched an inspection after which the chairman of the board of directors of Svyazinvest Leonid Reiman expressed his concern about the actions of Mr. Yurchenko with respect to the purchase and sale of his share holdings in the state holding’s subsidiaries. Mr. Reiman asked Svyazinvest to assess whether these actions constituted misuse of insider information, which is prohibited by law.
In order to remove suspicion about share manipulation, at the end of last year Evgeny Yurchenko announced that he was assigning his shares for trust management to KIT Fortis Investments (see Kommersant article dated October 30, 2009). Nonetheless, FFMS launched an inspection into possible misuse of insider information by the director general of Svyazinvest when transactions were performed involving his securities in the holding’s subsidiaries. At a later time the agency announced that “this information was not confirmed”.
In March, operations should be carried out to estimate the conversion ratios to be used when swapping RTO shares for shares in the merged Rostelecom. “The market has reacted neutrally to Mr. Yurchenko’s investment activity”, according to Troika Dialog analyst Anna Lepetukhina. Yesterday, CenterTelecom’s shares gained 0.67% on the MICEX stock exchange, while the MICEX rose 0.82%. However, the CEO’s holding of such a stake in CenterTelecom gives reason to assume that the share swap ratios of this company to be swapped into the merged Rostelecom will be no less attractive than those in other RTOs. “At the same time, it is not possible to say that the shares are being bought up on the eve of the swap, since there is still no news on when and at what price the conversion will be made”, Ms. Lepetukhina said.
|
