SOCHI, Russia, May 16 (Reuters) – Russian diamond miner Alrosa plans a share sale that could value the business at up to $15 billion and raise hundreds of millions of roubles for its local and national government owners.
The issue, which the Russian government has been promising since the mid-2000s, would be carried out on the Moscow bourse in Moscow in October or November, Chief Executive Fyodor Andreev said on Thursday after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
Alrosa’s mines produce a quarter of the world’s diamond output and the company competes with De Beers (a unit of Anglo American ) to rank as the world’s biggest diamond miner.
Putin has insisted that public share offerings of Russian state firms be done on the Moscow Exchange, narrowing the options for flotations and ruling out the deeper markets of London, New York or Hong Kong.
“The share placement is planned for late October or early November,” Andreev told reporters at Putin’s residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. “The sale of a 14 percent stake on the Moscow stock exchange is a base-case scenario.”
The company wants to attract a wide range of investors and avoid the entry of a large strategic shareholder, Andreev said. Final approval of the deal is expected by June 25.
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