OREANDA-NEWS. May 06, 2013. Russia’s VTB Bank confirmed that it had attracted three anchor investors to its 102 billion ruble second public offering (SPO).

The investors are Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management,the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Qatar Holding sovereign fund.

The investors confirmed that they plan to buy over 50% of the offered shares, a source familiar with the situation said, citing the bank’s CFO Herbert Moos. A representative for Norges Bank Investment Management said that the bank held 63% of the stakes of Russian companies as of the end of 2012, including 0.21% in VTB Bank.

VTB Bank, the country’s second largest bank in terms of assets after Sberbank, announced on April 26 the parameters of its SPO, under which it intends to place 2.5 trillion shares with a nominal price of 1.0 kopeck each. The price of the placement is 4.1 kopecks.

The Russian government does not plan to further cut its stake in VTB Bank within the next 12 months, after the SPO deal is closed, a bank executive said.

The existing shareholders may use the preemptive right over the period of May 6–17. The government’s share in VTB Bank will fall to 60.93% from the current of 75.50% if investors fully buy out the additional shares.