The power holding company will not buy out one-hundredth of the shares presented to it for redemption. RAO UES of Russia has received 1.3 billion roubles more applications for the presentation of shares for a buyout than it can satisfy. Therefore, the holding company will not buy out one-hundredth of the shares presented by each shareholder. At the same time, RAO UES has made up its mind to sell the shares to an unlimited number of investors in lots of 10 million shares. RAO UES share quotations yesterday exceeded the buyout price, for the first time in three months, but analysts believe that the holding company will hardly be able to earn on reselling the shares. Yesterday was the deadline for shareholders who disagreed with reorganisation to submit applications for redemption of their shares in the holding company, Marita Nagoga, head of the RAO UES media relations department, told Kommersant. Applications were submitted for 103 billion roubles, according to her. Under the law on joint-stock companies, however, the holding company cannot buy out more securities than 10% of the value of its net assets, i.e. 102 billion roubles. "A relevant reduction factor will be used when meeting the applications," explained Ms Nagoga. "All applications will be reduced by it, proportionally." She added that that was approximately one-hundredth. The right to present their RAO UES shares for a buyout can be exercised by shareholders who voted against the reorganisation of the holding company or who abstained in the vote at the meeting of shareholders on October 26. The buyout price is set at 32.15 roubles per ordinary and 29.44 roubles per preferred share. The presentation amounts to approximately 7% of the holding company's shares. At a meeting of the board of directors on November 30, a decision was made to enter into forward contracts with potential buyers of redeemed shares. Interfax reported yesterday that Sberbank or VTB may be among such potential buyers of the securities. However, Sberbank's deputy chairman of the management board Bella Zlatkis told Kommersant that the bank had no such intentions. VTB was unavailable for comment on the situation. A source close to RAO UES said that the scenario of selling the shares to an unlimited number of investors is the most probable. "The entire buyout amount will be divided into lots of 10 million shares," said Kommersant's interlocutor. "The starting price will not be lower than the buyout price." Ms Nagoga did not confirm to Kommersant that that was exactly the form that the sales will take and noted that RAO UES is discussing the sale of shares at the buyout price with several potential buyers. Yesterday, RAO UES shares for the first time in the last three months sold at a price of 32.5 roubles on Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, which is 1.5 roubles higher than previous quotations. However, analysts believe that the securities will soon drop in price again. "Many portfolio investors believed that redemption will considerably exceed the 102 billion roubles, so they filed applications for the entire amount of their shares," says Bank of Moscow analyst Dmitry Skvortsov. "When it became clear that their applications would be satisfied to the full extent, they began to buy in shares in the market again. That explains the growth." The analyst estimates that RAO UES will put up for sale approximately 317 lots with its securities. Vasiliy Sapozhnikov of Otkritie Financial Corporation is confident that RAO UES will hardly be able to earn. "It will hardly be possible to sell the shares at a price significantly higher than the market one, therefore an SPO is not the most attractive method for RAO UES," says he. Ms Nagoga specified to Kommersant that all the shares are to be sold until March 1, 2008. The RAO UES board of directors is to approve the disposal thereof at a meeting in absentia before the end of December. |
