Page 106 - RusRPTNov23

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On October 5, Phosagro reminded shareholders and GDR holders whose rights are accounted for in foreign depositories and who have not previously received dividends due to them from their depositories that they can receive payments in rubles by contacting the company directly. The payment procedure and application forms for individuals and legal entities can be found on the company’s website. Payments to non-residents from “unfriendly” countries will be made to a type “C” account if the payment is more than 10mn rubles per month (as provided for by the presidential decree). Previously, the IFRS report for 1H23 stated that the company received a cash return of RUB 10.1bn from depositories - these are funds that should have been paid to shareholders as dividends, starting with the final dividends for 2021, but did not reach final recipients.
8.3.3 ECM news
The Moscow Exchange expects dozens of small Russian companies to float their shares in initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2024, Sergei Shvetsov, chairman of the bourse’s supervisory board, said in a conference on October 12.
“We actually see that the pipeline of IPOs is rather big under the current conditions, but there is also a question of the cost of money, because the bonds yields are rather high. Investors want discounts on the shares, while the joint stock companies that want to place their stocks are not eager to provide the discount. Things have always been like that, but that gap has become even wider today,” he said.
Nevertheless, the bourse sees interest in that market from small companies. “We won’t likely see large IPOs today like what Ozon did, but we will see dozens of small IPOs next year, which is a good tendency, I think,” he said.
In 2022, the Moscow Exchange had one IPO, but this year, it has already held five IPOs and secondary public offerings, he added.
The Russian Federation forced the EBRD to sell its stake in the Moscow Stock Exchange for 30% of its value. Russian Forbes reported that the EBRD sold its 5.3% stake in the Moscow Stock Exchange, receiving only a third of its market value - ₽7.28B ($76.3M), instead of ₽22.8B. The bank had to agree to sell at a 60% discount, when the average is 50%, and pay a 20% exit tax. This package of shares will be bought by the Softline IT group, which, after the beginning of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, was divided into a Russian portion and a foreign portion. Its founder, Ihor Borovikov, resigned and moved to the US. The EBRD became a Mosbirge shareholder in 2012, but after 2014, when Russia occupied the Ukrainian Crimea, the bank stopped investing new money in the Russian market. The bank also imposed a
106 RUSSIA Country Report November 2023 www.intellinews.com