Shares of "Rostelecom" went up in June by almost 20%

Photo: D. Abramov / Vedomosti

Since the close of trading on May 29, Rostelecom shares went up by 21.5% to 97.1 rubles. for one share. At the same time, preferred shares for the same period increased in price by 14%, to 65.84 rubles. Growth in the value of shares (ordinary and privileged) is quite fast, only for this Tuesday the shares went up by 6 and 5%, respectively, Vedomosti reports. The turnover for June 9 and 10 for ordinary shares exceeded the average for May by 5 times, for preferred shares the excess even more - by 10-26 times.

Kira Kiryukhina, a representative of Rostelecom, believes that the growth of quotations is quite an expected market reaction, as a response to the fundamental changes taking place in the company. First of all, these changes concern the adoption of a progressive dividend policy. Now experts predict an increase in dividend yields on Rostelecom ordinary shares to the level of the Big Three companies. Kiryukhina also recalled that the company plans to complete the process of upgrading the broadband Internet access network by switching to optics. This, in turn, allows you to monetize the leadership position in the digital services market, as well as generate a greater amount of cash flow. According to Kiryukhina, there is interest from the funds in relation to the company.

Yevgeny Yurchenko, the former general director of the parent company of Rostelecom, Svyazinvest, who is one of the minority shareholders of Rostelecom itself, believes that the rapid growth of quotations and turnover is evidence of a targeted buying up of the operator’s securities. Aleksandr Vengranovich, an analyst of Otkritie FC, expressed a similar opinion. The analyst believes that among the buyers there is a large interested party whose motives are not quite clear. The opinion is to some extent confirmed by Bloomberg data, according to which from May 29 to June 9, BCS conducted deals with 25.4 million ordinary shares of Rostelecom (this is about 1%). This volume is about half of the total turnover of trading in the company's shares on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
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“Rostelecom” now, as it became known to sources of “Vedomosti”, is studying the possibility of buying CTC Media. At the same time, the company already knows what it will pay in the course of the transaction, in case of successful completion of the negotiations. For the transaction, own shares owned by Mobitel, a Rostelecom subsidiary, may be used. Now this company owns 10.72% of Rostelecom ordinary shares, and soon plans to acquire another 2.64%.