MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s No. 2 mobile phone firm MegaFon has priced its stock for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in London at $20 a share, the firm said on Wednesday.
The price of the stock market float corresponds to the lower end of MegaFon’s $20-25 price range, which values the company at $11.1 billion and indicates it should raise $1.7 billion in a share offering of 15 percent of its stock.
Trading in MegaFon’s shares and Global Depositary Receipts is commencing on the London Stock Exchange and the Moscow Stock Exchange on November 28.
MegaFon’s market float will be the largest among Russian companies after aluminum giant RusAl offered its stock to investors in Hong Kong in 2010.
MegaFon announced in October it would offer investors ordinary shares and Global Depositary Receipts held by Finnish and Swedish telecoms giant TeliaSonera (10.6 percent) and a MegaFon subsidiary, MegaFon Investments (4.4 percent).
MegaFon will use the IPO proceeds to repay current liabilities and spend funds on general corporate needs, including further development and network expansion, the company said earlier.
Morgan Stanley and Sberbank CIB (formerly Troika Dialog brokerage) have been appointed as the IPO global coordinators while Citi, Credit Suisse and VTB Capital will act as joint bookrunners.
MegaFon CEO Ivan Tavrin said the current market environment was the most appropriate time for the IPO, which will represent a new stage in the firm’s development.