Officials agreed on a deal for the Dutch telecommunications holding Veon for the sale of the Russian operator “VimpelCom”(works under the Beeline brand) to the Russian top management of the company, headed by President Alexander Torbakhov. The corresponding decision was made by the government subcommittee on transactions with companies from unfriendly countries, a source close to VimpelCom told Vedomosti. Also, information regarding the agreement of the transaction was reported RBC.
Representatives of VimpelCom, the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank declined to comment.
The press services of Veon, the Ministry of Economic Development and the government did not respond to requests from Vedomosti.
A special subcommittee, which approves transactions with foreign companies from unfriendly countries, was created in early March 2022 and headed by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. In December 2022, this subcommittee, as reported RBC, adopted four new criteria for the approval of transactions. One of them is the seller’s consent to installment payment for the asset by the buyer or the payment of a voluntary contribution to the federal budget in the amount of at least 10% of the transaction amount. A provision was also approved for a mandatory discount of at least 50% of the value determined in the course of an independent assessment.
The FAS has already issued its approval of this transaction, Vedomosti reported on January 27, 2023.
Discussions on the sale of VimpelCom have been ongoing since the fall of 2022. But the approval of this deal has recently been complicated by the demands of Russian Eurobond holders Veon. They insist that the deal cannot be realized without Vimpelcom’s guarantees on payments on this loan.
The largest bondholders are MC Leader and MC Pervaya. Both of them filed claims with the Moscow Arbitration Court – for 1.8 billion rubles. and 2.1 billion rubles. in accordance with the demand for repayment of debts.
As Vedomosti was told by Oleg Aleshin, Deputy General Director of Lider, the company applied to the foreign investment subcommittee so that “the agreement on the sale of VimpelCom might take place only if settlements with the holders of Veon Eurobonds were completed in full.” In a response letter, the company confirmed that its appeal would be taken into account, he noted.
Also, a lawsuit once morest VimpelCom in the Moscow Arbitration Court demanding compensation of 1.5 billion rubles. filed by the UKRosgosstrakh Life”. Its representative explained to Vedomosti that the lawsuit was filed due to “the general uncertainty with the position of a number of issuers regarding the provision of payments on financial instruments issued abroad, primarily on Eurobonds.”
In November 2022, the Dutch holding Veon announced an agreement to sell VimpelCom to Russian top managers of the company. The buyers were Torbakhov, as well as executive vice presidents Svetlana Kirsanova (for retail business), Maxim Zaikov (for corporate business development) and Valery Shorzhin (for network technological development), as well as vice president for corporate development, mergers and acquisitions Renat Nasretdinov .
It was reported that the deal was planned to close before June 2023. VimpelCom was then valued at 370 billion rubles. ($5.35 billion at the exchange rate of the Central Bank on January 26, 2023), but the transaction amount was less – 130 billion rubles. ($1.88 billion). The remaining 240 billion rubles. ($ 3.47 billion) is the net debt of VimpelCom within the total debt of Veon Holdings BV, which the company will assume and repay, a representative of VimpelCom reported to Vedomosti in November 2022. The total debt of Veon is estimated at $10.6 billion with the total assets of Veon at $16 billion, Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst at FG Finam, noted in November 2022.
The transactions agreed in this way by the government are a precedent in the Russian market, experts interviewed by Vedomosti say.
Previously, there was no practice of contributions to the state to agree on a deal, the head of the information and analytical content department draws attention.BCS The world of investments” Vasily Karpunin. But lately the situation has changed. “As we see from the transactions, the sale of Russian subsidiaries by foreigners is taking place with huge discounts – from 50% relative to real fundamental prices. In the current conditions, this is no longer critical due to external restrictions, which at the same time are imposed on Russian business abroad, ”says the expert.
With the participation of Sofia Sheludchenko
