Aton Vice President on RBC successful IPO

The successful IPO of RBC could become a standard of an IPO for Russian companies, Aton Vice President Igor Bondarenko declared at today's seminar organized by the association of independent directors and the RTS. "RBC managed to avoid speculations, concentration of shares in one hand and restrictions for bidders", he said.

Bondarenko stressed that the results of trade of RBC shares in 2002 had beaten expectations of analysts and shareholders. He noted that currently the growth in RBC shares was hindered by the low liquidity of the Russian stock market and pessimism of foreign investors about the Russian securities market.

The first IPO on the Russian stock market occurred on April 18, 2002. Some 16m shares were placed at $0.83 per share. According to preliminary applications of bidders, the demand was worth $64m, which was five times more than the supply. The IPO enabled RBC to attract $13.28m. Among investors were Russian companies, foreign institutional and corporate investors, investment funds and individuals.

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