SSA.L Regulatory News (SSA)

Sistema Group increases ownership stake in OJSC Sintez

31 March 2021, Moscow - Sistema PJSFC ("Sistema", the "Corporation" or, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, the "Group") (LSE: SSA, MOEX: AFKS), announces that its fully owned subsidiary LLC Sistema Telecom Assets has acquired 32.4% of the share capital of OJSC Sintez, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical holding company Binnopharm Group (controlled by Sistema), from JSC National Immunobiological Company ("Nacimbio", controlled by State Corporation RosTec).

"Increasing our ownership stake in OJSC Sintez is consistent with Sistema's strategy of strengthening our position on the pharmaceuticals market and transforming Binnopharm Group into an industry leader. We are continuing to work with Nacimbio and RosTec on a number of pharma projects, including production of the Regevac B vaccine for hepatitis B", said Sistema President Vladimir Chirakhov.

"Nacimbio is focusing on developing its biopharma assets with the ultimate aim of marketing fully Russian-made state-of-the-art immunobiological products. The sale of an equity interest in OJSC Sintez, which specialises in synthetic medicines and medical devices, forms part of this strategy. Since launching the partnership with Sistema, Sintez has been ramping up its output of pharmaceutical ingredients, upgrading its production facilities, and improving its financial performance. Having found a reliable and efficient partner in Sistema Group, we are happy to continue working in tandem in our area of core interest, namely designing and producing state-of-the-art vaccines," said Andrey Zagorsky, CEO of Nacimbio.

Binnopharm Group is a full-cycle Russian pharmaceutical holding company that combines five production sites across Russia: JSC Alium (formerly OBL Pharm; Serpukhov district, Moscow region), JSC Binnopharm (two sites at Zelenograd and Krasnogorsk), JSC Sintez (Kurgan) and JSC Biocom (Stavropol). Binnopharm Group companies produce a wide range of drugs of various therapeutic groups and have the largest portfolio of drugs among Russian manufacturers with more than 450 marketing authorisations, including the COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V. Sistema's effective interest in Binnopharm Group (jointly owned with VTB) is 79%, with another 15.8% held by an investor consortium that includes the Russia-China Investment Fund (co-founded by RDIF and China Investment Corporation) and several major Middle East funds. The remaining 5.2% is distributed among individual shareholders. Binnopharm Group owns a 56.2% stake in OJSC Sintez.

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Sistema PJSFC is a publicly traded Russian investment company with a diversified portfolio of assets serving over 150 million customers in the sectors of telecommunications, high technology, banking, retail, e-commerce, timber processing, agriculture, real estate, hospitality and healthcare. The company was founded in 1993. Its revenue in 2019 reached RUB 656.9bn, and its total assets as of 31 December 2019 equalled RUB 1.3tn. Sistema's global depositary receipts are listed under the "SSA" ticker on London Stock Exchange. Sistema's ordinary shares are listed under the "AFKS" ticker on Moscow Exchange. Website: www.sistema.com