Russia. Baltika Breweries Completed Share Buyback

  • Reading time:2 min(s) read

On 22 July 2011 the share buyback by Baltika Breweries completed.

All shareholders (owners of ordinary and preference shares) could participate in the buyback, regardless of the number of shares they held. The shares have been bought by the Company at a premium to the market price: 1,407 RUB for one ordinary share and 1,286 RUB for one preference type “A” share.

Since the total value of ordinary and preference shares submitted for buyback exceeded the maximum amount of funds earmarked for the share buyback procedure, a share buyback ratio has been established at 0.8701 for ordinary shares and 0.5355 for preference shares.

Total amount of shares bought by the Company amounted 7,319,202 ordinary and 543,241 preference “A” type shares. On 2 August 2011 Baltika completed the buyback payments. The total amount of buyback amounted 10,996,725,140 rubles.

The shares bought during the buyback should be sold at a market price or cancelled with a corresponding decrease of the share capital of the Company within 12 months after the buyback.

It is the current intention of Baltika Breweries within the said 12 months’ period to propose to the General Shareholders’ Meeting that the shares bought back during the share buyback to be cancelled and reduce the Company’s charter capital. This will improve the Company’s capital structure and increase earnings per share which is anticipated to positively impact the investment attractiveness of the Company and consequently benefit all shareholders.

Baltika’s major shareholder, Baltic Beverages Holding AB (subsidiary of Carlsberg Breweries A/S, Denmark) participated in the buy-back. When such cancellation happens and due to the over-subscription for buy-back, Baltic Beverages Holding AB’s holding of company’s capital will increase insignificantly.

***

The company’s issued share capital consists of 151,714,594 ordinary shares and 12,326,570 A-type preference shares. The nominal value of each ordinary and preference share is RUB 1. The company’s issued share capital totals RUB 164,041,164. For the last several years the company’s shares (ordinary and preference) have been traded on stock exchanges and over-the-counter markets. The shares are traded on two Russian trade stock exchanges: the RTS Exchange (since 2001) and the MICEX Stock Exchange (since 2003). At present the company’s shares in circulation on the stock exchanges are listed in the ‘Listed Securities Not Included in Quotation Lists’ section of the catalogue.