OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2011. MICEX Innovation and Investment Market launched trading in ordinary shares of Nauka-Svyaz OAO. The Russian Funds Investment Group is serving as the listing agent to help Nauka-Svyaz enter the stock exchange and support admission of Nauka-Svyaz OAO ordinary shares to trading.

Nauka-Svyaz OAO is a vertically integrated holding that unites several providers of telecommunications services for business. The largest holding constituent company is LLC Nauka-Svuaz which has been working in Moscow, Moscow region, St Petersburg, Belgorod, Tver, Obninsk, Tula, Rostov-on-Don and other regions of Central Russia since 1999.

According to Gennady Margolit, Vice President of MICEX, the admission of such issuer as Nauka-Svyaz OAO to the IMM sector confirms the attractiveness of the trading floor to the providers of communications services and telecommunications solutions and a growing interest among investors and the market as a whole towards high technology companies. 

Dmitry Nikashkin, General Director of Nauka-Svyaz OAO, noted that the company’s admission to MICEX IMM is a key step to the development of the high technology sector. "Nauka-Svyaz OAO, a multi-functional communications provider, is excited to join the public market of high technology companies and support the development of national innovations."

Sergey Vasilyev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Russian Funds Group, commented on the rapid growth of MICEX IMM sector. "The admission of the first company of the telecommunication sector, Nauka-Svyaz OAO, to Innovation and Investment Market is a testament to the market’s bright prospects for high technology companies in Russia", he noted."

MICEX Innovation and Investment Market (IIM) is a sector for high technology companies, created by the MICEX together with ROSNANO.

At the moment there are 20 companies of innovation sector traded in IIM.

The Innovation and Investment Market consists of three major segments for companies at different maturity and capitalization levels, as well as for different investor groups:

Innovation and Investment Market (IIM): A sector where innovative companies may issue IPOs/SPOs or launch secondary circulation of securities under any MICEX trading rules.

IIM-2 sector: Sets rules for private placements using stock market technology and listings. Secondary circulation is aimed at qualified investors and based on the trading technology intended for trading of large blocks of shares (under the Rules for Negotiated Transactions).

IIM-Board: A web information sector aimed at creating mechanisms of attracting investments by young innovative companies.

Nauka-Svyaz OAO is a vertically integrated holding that unites several providers of telecommunications services for business. Among the assets of the company there are over 12 thousand clients, its own trunk fibre optic circuit with the length over 2,000km, leased international lines Moscow – St Petersburg – Stockholm – Frankfurt – London and Moscow – Frankfurt –  Kiev, international communications centers connected to the leading Western providers: Cogent, Global Crossing, Tiscali, Colt, Hibernia Atlantic, Telefonica O2, Deutsche Telekom AG. The main profit of the company comes from the data communications service, internet and telephone services for corporate clients and lease of IP-channels. Consolidated proceeds of the Nauka-Svyaz holding over the year ending on December 31, 2010 totaled RUB 776 million, whereas the consolidated EBITDA made up RUB 174 million.

The Russian Funds Investment Group is one of the leading participants of the Russian financial market. Russian Funds Group is a multi-field financial holding specializing in brokerage services in stocks and debt instruments trading, mergers and acquisitions, arrangement of debt financing for the Russian companies, investments into construction, asset management, pension fund management.