OREANDA-NEWS. Sistema JSFC (“Sistema” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, “the Group”) (LSE: SSA), the largest publicly-traded diversified holding company in Russia and the CIS, announces its unaudited consolidated US GAAP financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2013.

THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Consolidated revenues up 5.4% YoY to USD 9.3 billion

Adjusted OIBDA up 0.3% YoY to USD 2.4 billion, with an adjusted OIBDA margin of 26.4%

Consolidated net income attributable to the Group more than doubled YoY to USD 1.3 billion. Adjusted net income attributable to the Group amounted to USD 663.7 million

Net debt at the Corporate Holding level amounted to USD 785.1 million as of September 30, 2013

KEY CORPORATE HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE THIRD QUARTER

Acquisition of a 100% stake in LLC Bashneft-Services Assets from Bashneft for a total cash consideration of RUB 4.1 billion.

Acquisition of a 98% stake in OJSC United Petrochemical Company (UPC) from Bashneft for RUB 6.2 billion.

A joint venture agreement signed by Sistema's UPC with the Mexican company Grupo Petrotemex, S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Alpek, S.A.B. de C.V. for the construction of an integrated purified terephthalic acid - polyethylene terephthalate plant in Ufa, Bashkortostan.

Sale of a 49% stake in OJSC Oil and Gas Company RussNeft, for a total cash consideration of USD 1.2 billion.

Completion of another stage in the reorganisation of the Group's transportation assets under the SG-trans brand: Sistema sold a 15% stake in SG-trans to Unirail Holdings Limited for RUB 2.5 billion.

Completion of the buy back of 25%+1 of Detsky mir-Centre's shares by Sistema's Detsky mir-Centre, through its wholly owned subsidiary, from Sberbank of Russia for RUB 4.5 billion.

Mikhail Shamolin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sistema, commented:

“Sistema reported strong set of results driven by excellent performance across the entire asset base and active portfolio management. We have substantially strengthened our cash position with proceeds from dividends and divestments rising to USD 1.6 billion and lowered our consolidated debt to OIBDA to record 1.1 in the reporting period. This demonstrates our ability to maximise investment opportunities at our disposal and deliver substantial shareholder value.

In terms of progress at our investments, a key milestone for the quarter was the launch of production at the Trebs and Titov fields, which is now contributing to Group's performance. Furthermore, most of our developing companies were profitable on the OIBDA and Net Income level, with our retail and banking investments performing particularly well. The successful implementation of Detsky mir's development strategy and an increase in interest income at MTS Bank contributed to this achievement, while SSTL continued to reduce its OIBDA loss.

The Group has continued to actively pursue its M&A strategy and is entering attractive new growth sectors. As part of the natural expansion of our energy investments, we acquired United Petrochemical Company, and completed the purchase of Bashneft-Services Assets, an oil services company. Through our clear development plan, substantial restructuring expertise and possible future partnership opportunities, we believe we can transform our oil and gas investment into one of the leading oil services providers in Russia. Furthermore, UPC has already signed a JV agreement with Alpek a leading petrochemical company in Latin America and one of the largest global producers of PTA and PET which UPC is considering to produce.

Overall, our solid performance and growing portfolio prove our determination to source unique investment opportunities in Russia. We are also establishing a strong track record for monetising our investments to generate substantial returns for all shareholders.”