Use these links to rapidly review the document Table of Contents PART III TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 Form 20-F ፬ Registration Statement pursuant to Section 12(b) or (g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or ፤ Annual report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 or ፬ Transition report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or ፬ Shell company report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Date of event requiring this shell company report Commission file number 333-12032 MOBILE TELESYSTEMS PUBLIC JOINT STOCK COMPANY (Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter) Not Applicable (Translation of Registrant's name into English) RUSSIAN FEDERATION (Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) 4 Marksistskaya Street, Moscow 109147 Russian Federation (Address of Principal Executive Offices) Joshua B. Tulgan Director, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations Mobile TeleSystems PJSC 5 Vorontsovskaya Street, bldg. 2, 109147 Moscow Russian Federation Phone: +7 495 223 20 25, Fax: +7 495 911 65 67 E-mail: [email protected] (Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person) Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Title of Each Class Name of Each Exchange on which Registered AMERICAN DEPOSITARY SHARES, EACH REPRESENTING 2 SHARES OF COMMON STOCK NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE COMMON STOCK, PAR VALUE 0.10 RUSSIAN RUBLES PER SHARE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE(1) Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: NONE (Title of Class) Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act: NONE (Title of Class) Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer's classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report 1,129,245,695 ordinary shares, par value 0.10 Russian rubles each and 391,398,362 American Depositary Shares as of December 31, 2017. Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ፤ Yes ፬ No If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ፬ Yes ፤ No Note—Checking the box above will not relieve any registrant required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 from their obligations under those Sections. Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ፤ Yes ፬ No Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes: ፤ No: ፬ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. Large accelerated filer ፤ Accelerated Filer ፬ Non-accelerated filer ፬ Emerging growth company ፬ If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ፬ †The term "new or revised financial accounting standard" refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012. Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing: U.S. GAAP ፬ International Financial Reporting Standards as Other ፬ issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ፤ If "Other" has been checked in response to the previous question indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. ፬ Item 17 ፬ Item 18 If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). ፬ Yes ፤ No (1) Listed, not for trading or quotation purposes, but only in connection with the registration of ADSs pursuant to the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Table of Contents Table of Contents Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 1 Item 1. Identity of Directors, Senior Management and Advisors 3 Item 2. Offer Statistics and Expected Timetable 3 Item 3. Key Information 3 A. Selected Financial Data 3 B. Capitalization and Indebtedness 5 C. Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds 5 D. Risk Factors 5 Item 4. Information on Our Company 69 A. History and Development 69 B. Business Overview 73 C. Organizational Structure 143 D. Property, Plant and Equipment 144 Item 4A. Unresolved Staff Comments 144 Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects 144 A. Operating Results 144 B. Liquidity and Capital Resources 167 C. Research and Development, Patents and Licenses, etc. 173 D. Trend Information 174 E. Off-balance Sheet Arrangements 176 F. Tabular Disclosure of Contractual Obligations 176 Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees 178 A. Directors and Senior Management 178 B. Compensation of Directors and Senior Management 182 C. Board Practices 183 D. Employees 184 E. Share Ownership 185 Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions 188 A. Major Shareholders 188 B. Related Party Transactions 188 C. Interests of Experts and Counsel 190 Item 8. Financial Information 191 A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information 191 B. Significant Changes 194 Item 9. Offer and Listing Details 195 A.4. Market Price Information 195 C. Markets 196 Item 10. Additional Information 196 A. Share Capital 196 B. Charter and Certain Requirements of Russian Legislation 196 C. Material Contracts 215 D. Exchange Controls 216 E. Taxation 217 F. Dividends and Paying Agents 226 G. Statement by Experts 226 H. Documents on Display 226 I. Subsidiary Information 226 Item 11. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 226 i Table of Contents Item 12. Description of Securities Other Than Equity Securities 232 D. American Depositary Shares 232 Item 13. Defaults, Dividend Arrearages and Delinquencies 235 Item 14. Material Modifications to the Rights of Security Holders and Use of Proceeds 235 Item 15. Controls and Procedures 235 Item 16A. Audit Committee Financial Expert 237 Item 16B. Code of Ethics 237 Item 16C. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 238 Item 16D. Exemption from the Listing Standards for Audit Committees 238 Item 16E. Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers 238 Item 16F. Change in Registrant's Certifying Accountant 240 Item 16G. Corporate Governance 240 Item 17. Financial Statements 242 Item 18. Financial Statements 242 Item 19. Exhibits 243 Unless otherwise indicated or unless the context requires otherwise, references in this document to (i) "MTS," "the Group," "we," "us," or "our" refer to Mobile TeleSystems Public Joint Stock Company and its subsidiaries; (ii) "Vodafone Ukraine" and "VF Ukraine" are to Private Joint Stock Company "Vodafone Ukraine" (formerly PJSCMTS Ukraine); (iii) "Uzdunrobita" is to our former subsidiary in Uzbekistan, which was deconsolidated in 2013; (iv) "MTS-Turkmenistan" our Turkmenistan subsidiary and "BCTI" are to Barash Communication Technologies, Inc., our former Turkmenistan subsidiary; (v) "Comstar" or "Comstar-UTS" are to COMSTAR—United TeleSystems, our former fixed line subsidiary, which was merged into MTS PJSC in 2011; (vi) "MGTS" is to Public Joint Stock Company Moscow City Telephone Network, our Moscow public switched telephone network ("PSTN") fixed line subsidiary; and (vii) "MTS-Armenia," "K-Telecom" or "VivaCell-MTS" are to our Armenian subsidiary; and (viii) "UMS" is to Universal Mobile Systems LLC, our former subsidiary in Uzbekistan which was deconsolidated in 2016; (ix) NVision our subsidiaries which provides integration services and (x) "Sistema" is to Sistema Public Joint Stock Financial Corporation, our majority shareholder. We refer to Mobile TeleSystems LLC, our 49% owned equity investee in Belarus, as "MTS Belarus." We refer to MTS Bank PJSC, our 26.6% owned equity investee as "MTS Bank." As MTS Belarus and MTS Bank are equity investees, our revenues and subscriber data do not include MTS Belarus and MTS Bank. In this document, references to "U.S. dollars," "dollars," "$" or "USD" are to the lawful currency of the United States, "Russian rubles," "rubles" or "RUB" are to the lawful currency of the Russian Federation, "hryvnias" are to the lawful currency of Ukraine, "soms" are to the lawful currency of Uzbekistan, "manats" are to the lawful currency of Turkmenistan, "dram" are to the lawful currency of Armenia and "A," "euro" or "EUR" are to the lawful currency of the member states of the European Union that adopted a single currency in accordance with the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community, as amended by the treaty on the European Union, signed at Maastricht on February 7, 1992.