By Andrei Skvarsky.
Moscow Exchange has a new feather in its cap now that Qiwi, a top-notch provider of electronic payment services in Russia and the CIS, opted for the bourse as one of the floors, along with NASDAQ, for trading its American depositary shares (ADSs) after a successful IPO in the United States.
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Co-managed by Russian brokerage Aton, the current secondary public offering (SPO) of shares by Qiwi, a company listed on the United States’ NASDAQ exchange and running a network of over 169,000 kiosks and terminals with 12m transactions a day, was launched on the exchange’s Innovation and Investment Market on October 8.
The exchange has generally been doing successful business after it was formed through the merger of the Micex and RTS bourses nearly two years ago. Qiwi’s ADS trade appears to take Russia a little step closer to the Kremlin’s ambitious goal of turning Moscow into a global financial powerhouse.
A statement from the bourse quoted Agaron Papoyan, corporate finance director of Aton, as saying the latter was “unique because it was the first time in the history of the Russian securities market when NASDAQ-listed securities have been sold on a Russian exchange, and Russian investors received an opportunity to trade these securities through the facilities of the Moscow Exchange”.
Moscow Exchange deputy chief executive Andrey Shemetov said: “We are pleased that more and more companies operating in Russia, but listed on foreign exchanges, are recognising the advantages of listing on Moscow Exchange as well. Qiwi carried out a successful IPO in the US this year and is now also offering Russian investors the opportunity to assess its investment perspectives. The same securities will be traded on Moscow Exchange and on NASDAQ, allowing for flow of liquidity between the two exchanges.”
“Listing on Moscow Exchange will open to our partners, including Qiwi agents, direct access to the Company’s ADSs,” said Qiwi chief financial officer Alexander Karavaev. “We believe that this will contribute to the expansion of our investor base and will be positive for the development of Qiwi’s core business.”
The pricing and settlement will be made in Russian rubles.
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