MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Investors from continental Europe, the United States and Britain bought more than 60% of share placement of one of Russia’s biggest food retailers Lenta in its recent SPO, head of equity capital markets at VTB Capital Elena Khisamova said Tuesday, adding that institutional investors were the main buyers.
Despite the current volatility and a complicated economic situation on the global markets, the buyers were quality long-term investors, she said.
"Hedge funds, which have not been very active on Russia’s equity capital market, bought out around 20% of placement. This evidences the positive expectations regarding the Lenta deal," Khisamova said.
Investors from continental Europe bought out 30% of Lenta shares, British investors acquired 18% of shares, while investors from the US bought out 17% of shares, VTB Capital's head of equity capital markets Elena Khisamova said, adding that 35% of placement was acquired by Russian investors, with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) with a pool of co-investors and partners from the Middle East and Asia having acted as a lead anchor investor.
Earlier on Tuesday it was reported that Russian retailer Lenta raised $225 mln in its secondary public offering (SPO) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). In an accelerated bookbuilding, Lenta placed 35.2 mln new shares, which is around 8% of its charter capital, in the form of Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) worth $6.4 each. Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and VTB Capital were organizers of the deal.