OREANDA-NEWS. Moscow Exchange hosted a ceremony yesterday to mark ALROSA's successful IPO of ordinary stock, attended by numerous figures involved in the placement.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said: “I congratulate Moscow Exchange and all present here on the successful placement. Just a year ago, there were many disputes about whether Moscow Exchange could perform the function entrusted to it. The instruction from Russia's president in 2012 was demanding - to work with Moscow Exchange and conduct privatizations via the exchange. There were also doubts about the placement venue, should it be only inside the country or executed some another way. Our decision turned out to be absolutely right. The exchange's infrastructure facilitated successful completion of the deal, which was a victory for Rosimuschestvo, the exchange, the Finance Ministry, and all agents involved. This is a step forward in the development of Moscow Exchange and the Russian market”.

CBR First Deputy Chairman Sergei Schvetsov, said: “The deal was indeed large and interesting. Today's success marks the end of a long journey not only by those involved in the deal, but also by Moscow Exchange and the regulators. Establishing a central securities depository, opening Russia's depository market to foreign depositories, creating technical links, and liberalising pension funds' investments all make Moscow Exchange an attractive venue for Russian companies to conduct SPOs and IPOs. The exchange cannot evolve without new IPOs. As Supervisory Board Chairman, I would like to say that our strategy entails allocating substantial resources to ensure that the events of today will be a regular occurrence”.

Moscow Exchange CEO Alexander Afanasiev said: “This is the largest placement in the history of Russia's stock market to be held exclusively in local shares with no dual listings on foreign marketplaces or DR placements. To make such a deal possible, much work was done to reform Russia's financial market infrastructure: a central securities depository and qualified central counterparty were created, which now operate successfully, and the stock market switched to trading with partial prefunding requirements. ALROSA's IPO is an example of a successful privatization deal and a rare case of a large public placement made at a premium to the market. The stock market's infrastructure has again proven its capacity for large placements, including in the framework of privatisation of state companies”.

Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimuschestvo) Director and Deputy Economy Minister Olga Dergunova said: “I consider the placement to be a huge success for the government. We reaffirm that the privatisation plans which were announced and to which the government is adhering remain unchanged. And companies, federal authorities, and Russia's government are together implementing those plans.

ALROSA CEO Fyodor Andreev said: “We are delighted with the great interest which international and Russian investors showed in our offering. The deal was an important strategic step for ALROSA. Our company enjoys a unique position as leader of the global diamond market: we possess the largest resource base in the industry; our market is fundamentally attractive; we are successfully introducing a cutting edge marketing and sales strategy; we are generating sustained cashflows; and we have promising growth prospects and an experienced management team. All of these factors played an important role in generating strong interest from investors in ALROSA and our offering. We will strive to develop ALROSA as a public company and to enhance its value for all shareholders”.

Other attendees included Sakha Region (Yakutia) Property and Land Minister Evgeny Grigoriev and representatives of lead placement managers Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, VTB Capital, and Renaissance Capital.