The Moscow Stock Exchange has opted for a domestic IPO, that is it will float its shares own trading platform. The launch of the road show is slated for February 4, 2013.
According to anonymous sources cited by the Russian Vedomosti daily, the shareholders are expecting to receive at least $500 million.
The pool of investment banks coordinating the IPO – Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Sberbank CIB, VTB Capital – have priced the stock exchange between $4.2-6.5 billion.
Among the bookrunners are Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs International, Morgan Stanley, Renaissance Capital and UBS Investment Bank.
The largest shareholders of the Moscow Stock Exchange, the result of the merger between MICEX and RTS, are the Central Bank of Russia, with 24.3 percent, Sberbank, with 10.3 percent, Vnesheconombank, holding 8.7 percent, the EBRD, Unicredit Bank and VTB, with 6 percent stakes each.
The Central Bank, however, will not take part in the offering.
The Moscow bourse wants to lure investors with a promise of high dividends, saying they could rise to as high as 50 percent by 2018. The exchange’s own earnings could potentially double within the same period.
According to VTB Capital’s assessment, the bourse’s 2012 net income totaled 8.35 billion roubles.
Last year, the world’s largest management company, BlackRock, purchased a stake in the Moscow Stock Exchange, along with the U.S-based Cartesian Capital Group.
The Moscow Exchange remains the last major exchange that has not gone public.
Author: Mikhail Vesely