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Articles & publications
17.06.2010
State could sell up to 10% of merged Rostelecom on the open marketInterfax
Part of the state’s equity stake which is formed as a result of the consolidation of the assets of Svyazinvest in a merger with Rostelecom (RTS: RTKM) could be launched into free float on the stock market, the general director of Svyazinvest Evgeny Yurchenko said on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg.
According to Mr. Yurchenko, after Svyazinvest’s subsidiaries merge with Rostelecom, the state’s stake in the merged company could be in the range of 54-60%. The actual size of the stake will depend on how many subsidiary shares Svayzinvest buys back from minority shareholders that disagree with the reorganization.
Evgeny Yurchenko pointed out that after completion of the reorganization of Rostelecom, which is scheduled to take place by February 2011, the state could launch some its shares into free float on the market, while retaining the controlling stake.
Yurchenko said that at present the most likely venues for an SPO include the London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The location of the offering has still not been chosen.
The management of Svyazinvest has on numerous occasions voiced its intention to take the merged Rostelecom public. This February, Mr. Yurchenko announced that Rostelecom, after consolidating Svyazinvest’s assets, would seek a stock market listing in April 2011. At that time, he mentioned that the offering could be as large as 25%.
The head of Svyazinvest also pointed out that the merged company intends to place its shares on Russian stock exchanges. It’s noteworthy that Rostelecom intends to enter into negotiations in advance with the various stock exchanges so that its shares can commence trading as soon as the securities of the merged companies have been converted, Mr. Yurchenko said.
As reported earlier, Rostelecom is currently going through the merger process, which involves folding the holding’s seven regional telecom operators (RTOs) and Dagsvyazinform.
So far, the Rostelecom merger has been approved by the shareholders of Southern Telecommunications Company (RTS: KUBN) and Sibirtelecom (RTS: ENCO).
Svyazinvest owns controlling stakes in the shares of Rostelecom and seven regional telecommunications operators – CenterTelecom (RTS: ESMO), North-West Telecom (RTS: SPTL), VolgaTelecom (RTS: NNSI), UTK (RTS: KUBN), Uralsvyazinform (RTS: URSI), Sibirtelecom (RTS: ENCO) and Far East Telecom (RTS: ESPK).
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