Moscow, Russian Federation — MTS PJSC (“MTS” or the “Company” – NYSE: MBT; MOEX: MTSS), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, announces that Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered the Company’s long-term corporate credit rating from 'BB+' to 'BB' and placed it on CreditWatch with developing implications.

The change in MTS’s rating was made following the downgrade of Sistema’s PJSFC (LSE: SSA, MOEX: AFKS) corporate rating from ‘BB-‘ to ‘B+’. Sistema is the parent company of MTS and owns an effective ownership stake of 50.004%. According to S&P policies, ratings on MTS cannot exceed those on Sistema by more than two notches.

Ratings on the Company's senior unsecured debt were downgraded from 'BB+' to 'BB'.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services noted in the release that it maintained the assessment of MTS’ standalone credit risk profile at ‘BBB-‘ supported by ‘strong‘ credit quality and operating performance.

Visit Standard & Poor's website to view the full release.

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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