Obtaining control important condition for T-Technologies' buyout of Cian; minority stake not of interest

MOSCOW. Nov 10 (Interfax) - T-Technologies is interested in consolidating Cian if it obtains control in the company, the group's chief financial officer Igor Gerasimov said.

"Indeed, an important condition for closing the deal [on buying Cian] in accordance with our voluntary offer is the consolidation of a controlling stake. We are a strategic investor, so it is important for us to have operational and strategic control over the acquired asset. We are not interested in minority investments, and we believe that only by obtaining control will we be able to obtain all the synergies we spoke about earlier," Gerasimov said on a conference call on Tuesday.

The group has no agreements with Cian's shareholders on the buyout of shares, he said.

"We have no agreements with any of Cian's shareholders. We made the offer as publicly as possible because we consider it important to respect the interests of minority shareholders. We welcome the participation of absolutely all investors from the market in our voluntary offer. And we are largely indifferent to whose shares specifically we manage to consolidate. Of course, we would be glad to see the consolidation of a controlling stake to realize our strategic ambitions. We consider this an important event for the entire stock market and for all of Cian's minority shareholders," he said.

If the deal takes place, the group will use its own and borrowed funds to finance it, he said.

"The source for a potential deal, if it takes place, will be a combination of own funds and possibly debt. We always raise debt from the market - it is a market instrument at market pricing. Therefore, the analogy with the acquisition of Auto.ru is probably appropriate in part," Gerasimov said.