OREANDA-NEWS. On 02 April 2008 was announced, that the results of the Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting of Baltika Breweries carried out in the form of absentee voting have now been counted. The final day for receiving ballots was March 6, 2008. The Extraordinary Meeting was called to place on record the reduction of the issued share capital in the Articles of Association.

Over 99% of the shareholders voted for the approval of the proposed changes and additions to the Company’s Articles of Association. Thus, at the present the issued share capital of the Company accounts 164,041,164 rubles. The process of reducing the issued share capital of Baltika Breweries by buying back and cancelling a part of the shares was completed at the beginning of January 2008.

In accordance with the decision adopted by shareholders on October 15, 2007, the Company purchased 9,828,550 ordinary and 1,213,545 type ‘A’ preference shares. All of the Company’s shareholders could take part in the process: owners of registered ordinary and preference shares of type ‘A’ regardless to the quantity of shares owned, including minority shareholders in the regions (Tula, Yaroslavl, Rostov, Chelyabinsk, Voronezh, Krasnoyarsk) where access to stock exchanges is limited.

The shares purchase reflected the Company’s striving to increase the profitability per share, enhance the attractiveness of investing in Baltika Breweries and improve the capital structure of the 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 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 the 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.’