Page 113 - RusRPTOct20

8.3.3 ​ ECM news
Rosneft​’s buyback activity jumped on September 6 as markets fell, jumping to 1.65mn shares from recent levels of c30k per day, ​per data reported by Rosneft to the London Stock Exchange. Rosneft’s buyback activity has again ramped up during a period of sharp market weakness. Over the last 5 trading days Rosneft has fallen by c3.9% relative to a c4.6% fall in Gazprom, a c7.2% fall in Lukoil, a very modest c0.3% decline in Novatek, and a c3.2% decline in the RTS Index overall. While the ramping up of the buyback does not appear to have led to outperformance for ROSN in this instance, it also did not underperform, something that in past years would have been highly likely in a declining market due to the higher perceived political risk around the state-owned company and its relatively high level of financial leverage. While the buyback program is in existence – it currently is only authorized through year-end 2020 – the market’s traditional perceptions of Rosneft’s beta will likely be suspended
Polyus Gold​ increased its stake in Sukhoi Log by 22% to 100%. ​The goldminer decided ahead of schedule to buy out the remaining 22% in the Sukhoi Log gold deposit from Rostech (RT) for $128.2mn. A JV between Polyus and RT won a tender for the development of the Sukhoi Log deposit in the Irkutsk region in 2017. PLZL agreed to gradually increase its stake in the JV from 51%, buying out RT’s share. The parties agreed on Wednesday to change the conditions for a number of options concluded in July 2017, which will allow PLZL to buy 11.3% from RT for cash and not for its own shares, as previously agreed, and also to buy out the remaining share. The increase in ownership is not a major event – full consolidation of the project is expected and makes sense. The stock’s valuations are rather inflated, among other things driven by the upcoming pre-feasibility study for the project.
Big three Russian e-commerce company​ ​Ozon Holdings​ says it will IPO either at the end of this year or the start of next, ​depending on market conditions, Sova Capital reports. E-commerce is booming in Russia with online sales growth twice has fast as traditional ones. And four biggest companies – Ozon, Wildberries, Sber and Yandex -- in the space are growing even faster at up to 80% a year,​ ​Ozon CEO ​Alexander Shulgin told ​bne IntelliNews i​ n an exclusive interview in September 2019​ Ozon is owned and has been funded byconglomerateAFK​S​ istema​buthasreachedastageinitsdevelopment where it intends to scale up by reaching out to institutional investors.
Mail.ru Group​ issues new shares and convertible bonds. ​Mail.ru on September 23 announced $600mn capital raise. Of the $600mn sum, $200mn is the placement of newly issued shares (ABB; 3% share capital) and $400mn are 5-year convertible bonds (underlying asset corresponds to 5% share capital, we estimate) Price of placement – $28/GDR (8.5% discount to yesterday’s close) – is a reference price for the convertibles Convertibles
113 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ October 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com