The Moscow Exchange has upgraded the shares of MegaFon, one of the country’s leading mobile operators, to the highest quotation list, Level 1, following a recent listing reform, broadening the range of potential investors and improving liquidity, the operator said Monday in a press release.
“We are glad that our shares have been admitted to trading under Level I quotation list on the Moscow Exchange, and believe that this is an important event for our shareholders as the liquidity of our shares will improve,” Dmitry Kononov, director of MegaFon’s investor relations department, said, as cited in the statement.
The MegaFon share listing upgrade has become the third since the company’s initial public offering in November 2012. Common shares were initially admitted to trading under the listing “V”. In August 2013, the company’s common stocks were upgraded to quotation list “B”, and at the end of April 2014 they were once again upgraded to quotation list “A2”.
Holding Garsdale, controlled by Alisher Usmanov’s USM Holdings, owns 50% plus 100 shares in MegaFon; Swedish-Finnish Company TeliaSonera owns 25.17% in the operator; MegaFon Investments Ltd., a Cyprus-registered 100%-owned unit of MegaFon, holds 7.57%. CEO Ivan Tavrin’s Anfimako Ltd. owns 2.55% stake in the operator, while 14.75% of shares are in a free float.