Page 109 - Russia OUTLOOK 2024

• 8.1 ECM
Foreign portfolio investors used to make up half of the investment into Russian stocks but now they are either trapped in the market or, if they have a passport from a friendly country, they have exited. However, the domestic investment pool remains substantial and the Russian stock market is still functioning.
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 bond 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 in 2023 it had already held five IPOs and secondary public offerings, he added.
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