Page 75 - RusRPTMar20

8.3.3 ​ ECM news
En+ announced on February 6 that it had agreed to acquire the stake in the company currently held by VTB (21.37%) for a total consideration of $1.58bn. ​ The acquisition is to be financed by a loan from Sberbank for up to RUB110.6bn that will be paid back from 2023 till December 2026. The shares acquired will be held at the subsidiary level, meaning they will have voting rights (the trustee agreement for 14.33% remains intact, while the remaining 7.04% will be voted by the chairman of the board at the BoD's discretion).
The company has no intention to cancel the shares and should therefore get back 21.37% of the dividends it decides to distribute among its shareholders (based on its dividend policy, it should receive a minimum of $53.4mn). Lord Barker, the executive chairman of En+, has reiterated that the company intends to resume dividend payments in 2020 (an update is expected after the publication of the 2019 results in March). The options for how the shares will be used that were mentioned by the company include "strategic activity" and a secondary offering. Given the previous comments from the management about how streamlining the structure of the group could make sense, it is possible that "strategic activity" could be something along the lines of the Glencore share swap. As for the potential secondary offering, low liquidity is currently a problem for En+ shares and a placement could help to increase the free float and boost liquidity. Analysts see the news as positive for the En+ investment case. The fact that En+ is considering a secondary offering indicates that it is focused on the interests of minority shareholders, as does the planned return to dividend distribution.
Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk is considering a secondary public offering (SPO) on the Moscow Exchange (Moex)​, currently reviewing the legal and regulatory framework, the company said in a press-release. As reportedby​bneIntelliNews,​ astheminer’scapitalisationalmostdoubledin less than a year, its main shareholder ​Roman Trotsenko sold 22.4% in the company to Russia’s fourth-largest gold producer Yuzhuralzoloto​. At the end of 2019 ​heavyweight minorities flocked to Petropavlovsk​ when it was thought to become the springboard for a $0.7bn investment in gold assets consolidation by Trotsenko, who acquired a 22.4% stake in the company. Reportedly, according to the Telegraph, the miner is now considering the double listing and hopes to attract funds from investors in Russia to pay off bonds worth $500mn. Petropavlovsk is currently listed on the London Stock Exchange.
After receiving a $40mn capital injection last year, Russian online video company ivi.ru has plans to go public this year​, according to ​Kommersant.​ Unnamed industry sources told the business daily last week that the operation could take place on the Nasdaq by the end of this year with JP Morgan Chase underwriting the IPO. The ivi.ru press service declined to comment on what it calls “rumours” – but, as pointed out by Kommersant, these rumours are in line with previous statements from the company’s CEO Oleg Tumanov in 2018 when he told online publication TJournal an IPO could take place by 2020 “if the ruble will not fall again”.
Russia’s Sovcombank is preparing an IPO ​to be organised by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, Reuters reported on February 17 citing unnamed banking sources. Reportedly, the IPO is planned for 1H20. Sovcombank is the third largest private bank in Russia, controlled by brothers Sergei and Dmitry Khotimsky (37.9%) and chairman Dmitry Gusev (7.5%), and has sovereign funds, the​ ​Russian Fund for Direct Investment​ (RDIF), Saudi
75​ RUSSIA Country Report​ March 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com