The board of directors of the Russian gold producer Polyus has set the price of its secondary public offering (SPO) at $66.5 per share, the company said in a report on June 30.
Polyus planned to offer from 7% to 9% of its capital, including $400 million worth of new shares and existing securities, including global depository shares (GDS). The company collected bids from June 15 till June 29.
Boris Kvasov, director of equity capital markets at VTB Capital, one of the organizers, said that the bulk of the company’s shares were purchased by long-term investors.
“The deal enjoyed high-quality demand from investors. Most of them were long-term investors – they accounted for almost 80% of all allocations, including sovereign funds, which accounted for slightly less than 10%,” Kvasov said.
Russian pension funds also took part in the transaction and their share was less than 1%, he added.
Over 80 institutional investors have purchased the shares, Kvasov said.
Investors from the U.K. bought around half of the shares, Russian investors purchased slightly over 10%, and investors from Continental Europe also bought around 10%, he added.
Around 20% was purchased by investors from North America, including from Canada; investors from the Middle East bought less than 10%, he said.
A consortium of international investors formed by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and leading sovereign funds of the Middle East took part in Polyus’ SPO, RDIF said.
“Investors from countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain took part in Polyus’ share placement,” RDIF said. (Prime/Ukrainian metal)
