Moscow, Russian Federation — Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (‚MTS‘ — NYSE: MBT), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, announces the decisions reached at the Board of Directors meeting held on May 21, 2009, on the dividend amount recommendation and the nominees for election to the Company’s Board.
MTS’ Board of Directors (BoD) recommended the annual general meeting of shareholders (AGM) approve annual dividends of RUB 20.151 per ordinary MTS share (approximately $2.96 per ADR2) for the 2008 fiscal year, amounting to a total of RUB 39.40 billion ($1,158.3 million) or approximately 60% of US GAAP net income. As announced earlier, the record date for the Company’s share –; and ADR-holders entitled to participate in the AGM and to receive dividends was May 8, 2009. The AGM will be held on June 25, 2009.
At the meeting, the Company’s BoD also nominated a total of nine members for election to the Board. The candidate list includes:
- Mr. Anton Abugov, First Vice-President, Head of Strategy and Development functional division, Sistema;
- Mr. Alexey Buyanov, Senior Vice President, Head of Financial functional division, Sistema;
- Mr. Daniel Crawford, independent director;
- Mr. Sergei Drozdov, Senior Vice President, Head of the Property functional division, Sistema;
- Mr. Mohanbir Gyani, independent director;
- Mr. Paul Ostling, independent director;
- Mr. Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of MTS;
- Mr. Ron Sommer, First Vice-President, Head of its Telecommunications business unit, Sistema;
- Ms. Tatiana Yevtoushenkova, Advisor to the President of Sberbank.
The new directors will be elected after the decision of the Company’s AGM on June 25, 2009.
1The dividend yield per share is 8.0%. No dividend will be paid on the 37,762,257 shares that were acquired by MTS as part of the mandatory buyback in September 2008.
2According to the Russian Central Bank exchange rate of 34.0134 RUB/USD as of March 31, 2009. The dividend amount is set in Russian rubles by the Board of Directors; U.S. dollar amounts provided for reference using the foreign exchange rates as of March 31, 2009.
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