Moscow, Russian Federation — MTS PJSC (“MTS” – NYSE: MBT; MOEX: MTSS), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, announces that Sistema PJSFC (LSE: SSA, MOEX: AFKS), the parent company of MTS with effective ownership stake in MTS of 50.03 per cent, has declared that, as of 28 August 2017, a technical default has occurred on credit obligations amounting to approximately RUB 8.9 billion.

According to Sistema PJSFC, non-compliance with certain conditions of some of its credit facilities, which triggered the technical default, is driven exclusively by the arrest of the assets within the legal claim of Rosneft PJSC and Bashneft PJSOC with the Republic of Bashkortostan against Sistema PJSFC and its subsidiary Sistema-Invest JSC.

Other than the credit obligations disclosed earlier and mentioned above, Sistema PJSFC remaining loan agreements do not contain a condition whereby this arrest of shares will lead to a technical default. The technical default is purely formal in nature. Sistema PJSFC is servicing its credit and financial obligations in a timely manner and in full, and plans to continue doing so in the future.

Interested parties can learn more about the case from the disclosure of Sistema PJSFC – https://www.sistema.com/press/press-releases/detail/article/22839/

The arrest of 31.76% of shares in the authorized capital of MTS held by Sistema PJSFC as well as the above-mentioned technical default of Sistema PJSFC does not impede the operational activities of MTS as well as does not impact the company's debt instruments.

* * *

For further information, please contact in Moscow:

Joshua B. Tulgan
Director, Department of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations
Mobile TeleSystems PJSC
Tel: +7 495 223 2025
E-mail: ir@mts.ru