London Stock Exchange today welcomes MegaFon, one of Russia’s largest telecommunications businesses, to its Main Market. The company opened trading in London in a ceremony to mark the start of conditional dealing in its Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs), ahead of its listing on 3 December.
MegaFon’s offering raised $1.7 billion (£1.1 billion), the largest new capital raising by a telecommunications company in London since Orange in 2001. The offering also brings the total amount of capital raised by Russian new issues on London Stock Exchange to $8.2 billion (£5.1 billion) this year.
Ivan Tavrin, CEO at MegaFon, joined Chris Gibson-Smith, Chairman of London Stock Exchange Group, in opening trading on the London markets this morning.
Alastair Walmsley, Director of Equity Primary Markets at London Stock Exchange Group, said:
“MegaFon is another fantastic win for London. It is our largest telecoms offering for over ten years, and the latest in a string of Russian firms raising substantial equity capital on our markets. It shows London remains the natural destination for successful international businesses looking to access a global investor base.”
Ivan Tavrin, CEO at MegaFon, said:
“We received high quality institutional demand from all regions in which the securities were offered. The successful pricing of our IPO today is a clear endorsement of MegaFon’s investment case and reflects investor appetite for the Russian mobile data growth story. On behalf of the Board I welcome all our new shareholders and look forward to delivering further profitable growth and value creation as we continue to leverage our leadership in mobile data to exploit the significant opportunities we see ahead.”
MegaFon will join 65 Russian companies already quoted across London Stock Exchange’s markets, which have raised $68.8 billion (£42.9 billion) in new and further issues since 2004.