By Andrei Skvarsky.
Russia’s VTB Capital has raised $95.2m by selling its stake in Russian software development and IT outsourcing company Luxoft in a secondary public offering (SPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in which the Moscow-based bank was one of the bookrunners.
The offering was more than three times oversubscribed and attracted “high quality institutional demand from US and European investors”, VTB Capital, the brokerage arm of Russia’s state-controlled VTB banking group, said in a statement.
Luxoft, which is headquartered in Moscow, is “VTB Capital’s second successful private equity investment in the sector of IT outsourcing services”, said Tim Demchenko, global head of private equity and special situations at VTB Capital.
“In 2010 we invested in EPAM Systems Inc., which we exited in 2012. As with EPAM Systems, the Luxoft investment has generated impressive investment returns, resulting in a gross internal rate of return in excess of 50% for VTB Capital,” Demchenko said. “We will continue to look for attractive investment opportunities in the IT sector.”