Leading Russian payment operator Qiwi filed a registration statement with the U.S. regulator, the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) on Wednesday, to raise up to $100 million from an initial public offering.
J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse will act as joint book-running managers in the operation, which could take place before next summer. The number of American Depository Shares Qiwi plans to offer or their expected price has not been revealed, but Reuters echoed plans to float between 25 and 30% of the company’s shares while the IPO would value it at $1 billion.
Qiwi is a leading provider of offline and online payment services in Russia and Kazakhstan. It also operates in 20 other countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
The company was established in late 2007 following the merger of OSMP, established three years earlier, and E-port Payment Systems. A majority stake is owned by Qiwi’s management, while the Mail.ru Group and Japan’s Mitsui have minority stakes.
Qiwi enables more than 40,000 merchants to accept over 39 billion rubles (approximately $1.3 billion) cash and electronic payments monthly from over 65 million consumers using its network at least once a month.
The operator dominates the Russian cash payment terminals market with more than 120,000 payment processing machines across the country. Russians use these nearly ubiquitous machines to pay for virtually everything from mobile phone bills to utilities, taxes, and fines.
Over the last few years, the company has gone online, providing 11 million users with electronic wallets and offering new products in partnership with VISA.