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VTB pays RUB 11 billion to shareholders in buy-back deal

A total of 74,302 buy-back applications were received by the bank’s offices
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, April 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Vneshtorgbank (VTB) has finished settlements with the shareholders who participated in a buy-back deal and paid 11.4 billion roubles.

As of April 28, the money had been transferred to the accounts of all the shareholders involved in the buy-back deal ahead of time. Settlements with the shareholders were supposed to be completed before April 30.

A total of 74,302 buy-back applications were received by the bank’s offices.

Earlier, VTB said that 114,000 shareholders would be able sell their shares to the bank, including 105,000 would be allowed to sell all of their shares.

The bank started accepting requests for a buyback on March 12 and stopped accepting them on April 13.

VTB said it would buy back shares from minority shareholders paying out of its profit, without the help of the government.

“VTB shares dropped after the crisis and people are now raising the question that they should be bought from them at the previous price. VTB is ready to do so out of its profit, not at the expense of the budget,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

According to VTB CEO Andrei Kostin, this would take up to 18 billion roubles.

“We are ready to provide the necessary resources for that,” he said.

The maximum amount paid to one shareholder is 500,000 roubles. The buyback price was be 13.6 kopecks per share.

Since the initial public offering (IPO) in May 2007, the Bank's shares have been traded on MICEX (VTBR), RTS (VTBR) and on LSE in the form of GDRs (VTBR). The total volume of funds raised through the IPO was almost USD 8 billion. It was the largest global IPO by a banking institution in 2007. VTB Bank became the first Russian bank to offer Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

On September 25, 2009, VTB completed a rights offering which added RUR 180.1 billion (USD 6 billion*) to its equity.

VTB Bank free-float is 24.5 percent with roughly half in the form of GDRs listed on the London Stock Exchange and half in the form of ordinary shares listed on Russian exchanges.