Moscow, 17 July 2017 – Sistema PJSFC (hereinafter “Sistema” or “the Corporation”) (LSE: SSA, MOEX: AFKS), a publicly traded diversified Russian holding company, announces that as of 17 July 2017, a technical default has occurred on credit obligations of the Corporation amounting to approximately RUB 3.9 billion.
The technical default took place due to the ongoing arrest of shares of MTS, Medsi and Bashkirian Power Grid Company owned by the Corporation and Sistema-Invest, which was imposed by the Republic of Bashkortostan Arbitration Court as part of legal proceedings initiated by Rosneft, Bashneft and later joined by the Republic of Bashkortostan (the “Claimants”) against Sistema and Sistema-Invest seeking RUB 170.6 billion in damages allegedly incurred by Bahsneft in connection with its reorganisation.
Sistema stresses that non-compliance with certain conditions of some of its credit facilities, which triggered the technical default, is driven exclusively by the arrest of the above-mentioned assets and is purely formal in nature. Sistema is servicing its credit and financial obligations in a timely manner and in full, and plans to continue doing so in the future.
Sistema believes that the arrest of its assets is unfounded, and continues to take all necessary steps to have the arrest lifted. To this end the Corporation has filed an appeal with the 18th Arbitration Court of Appeal.
Guided by its policy of openness and transparency, Sistema informs shareholders and investors about the progress of the court proceedings on its website: www.sistema.com/investoram-i-akcioneram/informacija-ob-iske-k-afk-sistema/.
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For further information, please visit www.sistema.ru or contact:
IR Service
Yury Krebs
Tel.: +7 (495) 730 66 00
y.krebs@sistema.ru |
Press service
Sergey Kopytov
Tel.: +7 (495) 228 15 32
kopytov@sistema.ru |
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