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EBRD invests $80 million in Russia’s largest high-tech group
Minority stake in Sitronics part of Bank’s commitment to Russian technology
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has acquired a 3.67
percent stake in JSC Concern Sitronics, Russia’s largest industrial
conglomerate of high-tech companies, in a transaction underlining the Bank’s
commitment to investments promoting the commercialisation of Russian
technology.
The $80 million proceeds from the EBRD’s acquisition will be earmarked mainly
to upgrade technology standards in the microelectronics arm of Sitronics,
which already boasts the most advanced mass production facilities in Russia
for microchips and integrated circuits.
Sitronics, which had 2005 consolidated sales of $955 million, is part of the
Sistema group, the largest Russian financial-industrial group outside the
natural resources sector. Sistema earlier this year announced plans for
Sitronics to make the first initial public offering by a Russian high-tech
company.
The new technologies financed by the EBRD’s purchase of new Sitronics shares
will be deployed at Sitronics’ production facilities in the city of Zelenograd
near Moscow, traditionally dubbed the “Russian Silicon Valley.” Zelenograd’s
revival as a science and technology park after its virtual collapse in the
1990s was largely facilitated by Sistema.
The EBRD is proud to be associated with a project which will help to unlock
and develop Russia’s significant but under-exploited intellectual resources,
particularly in the field of high technology said Varel Freeman, the Bank’s
First Vice-President, at a signing ceremony in the Moscow headquarters of
Sitronics.
The Bank can help Russian knowledge-based and high-tech companies which have
the potential to become competitive and are committed to improving their
business practises, Mr. Freeman said. The EBRD welcomes the improvements
already carried out by Sitronics and the Bank is glad to be associated with a
company committed to world class standards of governance, including the manner
in which the rights of minority shareholders are taken care of, Mr. Freeman
added.
Until its re-branding at the beginning of this year, Sitronics used to be
known as JSC Kontsern Nauchny Tsentr. The group employs 10,000 highly
qualified professionals and incorporates several companies in Russia, the
Czech Republic, Ukraine, Greece and Romania.
The arrival of the EBRD as a shareholder highlights our positioning as a
European and not just a regional company, said Sitronics President Evgeny
Utkin. It underlines our successful performance as a business and the fact
that our treatment of minority shareholders meets international standards, Mr.
Utkin added
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