OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2010. The Investor Protection Association (IPA), of which several minority shareholders in Rostelecom and the RTOs are members, voiced support for Evgeny Yurchenko remaining as head of the combined companies. IPA also recommended that Rostelecom shareholders vote against a proposal to pay out 10% of net income in dividends to preferred shareholders in the consolidated company, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation.

View: Minorities will not have a vote in the election of Svyazinvest's CEO. In the unlikely event that they do manage to help Yurchenko hold onto his position, a probable cost of their support will be abandonment of the dividend proposal, for which Yurchenko has been the main advocate.

Valuation & Action: The consolidated Rostelecom trades on a 2010 EV/EBITDA of 3.3x. We maintain our HOLD rating on Rostelecom prefs.