Nasdaq to delist CTC Media for failing to follow rules

CTC Media has confirmed that the Nasdaq will delist the company from the stock market after the Russian media firm failed to meet listing rules.

In a statement, CTC said that the decision was reached by Nasdaq “because, among other reasons, the company did not hold an annual meeting for fiscal year 2015, as required by Rule 5620(a) of Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements and failed to solicit proxies, as required by Listing Rule 5620(b).”

Trading of the company’s common stock will be suspended as of today and Nasdaq will file a form with the Securities and Exchange Commission that will remove the CTC’s securities from listing and registration on the Nasdaq stock market.

CTC said that its common stock “may be immediately eligible to be quoted in the ‘Pink Sheets’”, but cautioned that there can be “no assurance” that it will be eligible.

“To be quoted on the Pink Sheets, a market maker must sponsor the security and comply with SEC Rule 15c2-11 before it can initiate a quote in a specific security,” said CTC.

“There can be no assurance that a market maker will apply to quote the company’s common stock or that the company’s common stock will become eligible for the Pink Sheets.”

Pink sheets are daily publications compiled by the National Quotation Bureau with bid and ask prices for over-the-counter stocks. Companies quoted on the pink sheets system do not need to file with the SEC.

However, SEC Rule 15c2-11 governs the submission and publication of quotations by brokers and dealers for certain non-Nasdaq over-the-counter equity securities.

CTC Media completed the sale of a 75% interest in its Russian operating businesses in December 2015 ahead of the 2016 introduction of an amendment to the Russian law on mass media that limits foreign ownership of media companies in Russia to 20%.

CTC’s stockholders previously approved a merger, which will see a wholly owned subsidiary of CTC merge with the surviving company. In an update issued yesterday, CTC said that it expects to complete the merger on May 20, 2016.