BlackRock buys stake in Micex-RTS with RDIF support

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Funds run by BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, have bought an undisclosed number of shares in Moscow’s Micex-RTS exchange with support from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a sovereign co-investment fund whose task is to attract foreign private equity to Russia.

The sale of the stake to funds managed by BlackRock UK, the British arm of the New York-based multinational firm, is the first transaction in an RDIF programme of support for companies planning IPOs on Micex-RTS, the $10bn sovereign fund said in a statement. The shares had been acquired by RDIF earlier this year.

The programme “will see the RDIF, BlackRock UK, Goldman Sachs and Templeton work together in pre-IPO situations with market-leading Russian corporates planning a Moscow listing”, the statement said.

“We are delighted that the world’s largest and most respected asset manager joins us as a shareholder in the Moscow Exchange,” said RDIF chief executive Kirill Dmitriev. “As the first investment of the pre-IPO programme, there could not be a better target than the Moscow Exchange.”

RDIF holds a stake in Micex-RTS.

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