Thank God it’s Friday, bankers working on Russia might say. Nord Gold has today joined the list of Russian IPOs that have hit the sands this week.
As ft.com reports, the company, Severstal’s gold mining arm, pulled its £441m London listing citing “current market conditions” and saying that the business, which Severstal hoped would be worth £2.5bn-£3.3bn, would have “been significantly undervalued”.
The decision in the same week after pipemaker Chelpipe cancelled its London IPO and pump maker HMS slashed its price. Last Friday, Koks pulled its offering.
As Catherine Belton and Courtney Weaver write:
Investor interest in both offerings has been hit hard by the huge outflows from emerging markets following the unrest in Egypt, while the upcoming $3bn-plus offering of a 10 per cent stake in VTB, the Russian state bank, looked to be draining any remaining Russia cash.
Even the bankers pricing VTB, which they are due to do on Monday, can’t afford to relax until/unless they get the shares away close to the current market price. But at least the oil price, the main driver of Russia’s economy and markets, is going their way. On the Egyptian unrest it was up on Friday morning London time, with Brent crude futures up $1 a barrel at $101.87.
Stefan Wagstyl
Josh Noble
Rob Minto
Pan Kwan Yuk
Jonathan Wheatley
Heba Saleh