Moscow Times 3 September 2012
Trading of Nomos-Bank shares was briefly suspended in Moscow on Friday as the stock rocketed more than 20 percent in 10 minutes after the announcement that Otkritie Financial Corporation was looking to obtain full control of Russia’s eighth-largest banking group.
The official confirmation of the long-rumored merger, which would include a buyout of minority investors, means the formation of the biggest privately owned bank in the country after Alfa Bank is now almost certain to go ahead.
MICEX froze trading of Nomos-Bank equity between 11:54 a.m. and 12:24 p.m. after Otkritie Financial Corporation said in a statement posted on its website that minority shareholders in the bank will be offered “no less than $14 per Global Depositary Receipt” as part of a takeover. The deal was corroborated by Nomos-Bank in an e-mailed statement.