OREANDA-NEWS. On October 15, 2007 at Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting (EGSM) carried out in the form of absentee voting, the decision to reduce Baltika Breweries’ issued shared capital by buying back and cancelling shares has been taken, reported the press-centre of Baltika Breweries.

The purchase of ordinary and preference shares of A-type from shareholders willing to participate will be conducted in accordance with Russian Federation legislation and the share buy back procedure adopted by the Board of Directors.

In accordance with the decision made by the shareholders the Company will buy back up to 9,894,230 ordinary and up to 1,225,114 preference shares of A-type. The price of purchase is 1300 RUR for one ordinary share and 880 RUR for one preference share.

The purchase of the shares will take place from 22 November 2007 to 4 January 2008 in two stages.

The first stage (from 22 November 2007 to 5 December 2007): submission of the shareholders’ applications.

The second stage (from 6 December 2007 to 4 January 2008): conclusion of shares sale-purchase agreements, transfer of the shares sold by shareholders to the Company’s account in the registrar’s system of securities ownership.

The shares will be paid out in Russian rubles within 7 working days following the date of shares entering the Company’s account.

The order and conditions of the shares purchase will be published in the newspaper "Izvestiya" and will be distributed to all the shareholders by post along with application form.

The reduction of the Company’s issued share capital will facilitate:
growth in profitability per share, thus enhancing the attractiveness of investing in Baltika Breweries;
improvement in the capital structure;
shareholders’ ability to sell their shares at a market rate without having to pay intermediaries, brokers and stock exchange services, commissions and other expenses related to the sale of their shares.

Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH), Baltika’s majority shareholder, has indicated to the Board of Directors its intention to participate in the buy back so that its current proportion of shares will not increase as a result.

The Board of Directors of Baltika Breweries reconfirms its intention to remain a public company. Over the course of the past several years, Baltika Breweries shares (both ordinary and preference shares) have been traded on stock exchanges and over-the-counter markets. The Company’s shares passed through the listing procedure and were quoted on the country’s two stock exchanges - the MICEX (Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, since 2003) and the RTS (Russian Trading System, since 2001).

At present the Company’s shares are traded on the stock exchanges in the "List of securities allowed to be traded, but not included in the quotation lists."