Europlan IPO priced at high end of set range - 875 rubles/share, valuing co at 105 bln rubles

MOSCOW. March 29 (Interfax) - The placement price in the initial public offering of Europlan was 875 rubles per share, the high end of the previously announced price range of 835-875 rubles, the Russian leasing company reported.

The company's market capitalization at the start of trading will therefore be 105 billion rubles. The IPO will result in a free float of 12.5%

The IPO consisted of 15 million shares held by Europlan's sole owner, investment group SFI (MOEX: SFIN (formerly Safmar Financial Investments), which is controlled by Said Gutseriev. This amounts to 13.1 billion rubles at the IPO price, of which 1.5 billion rubles are earmarked for possible stabilization in secondary trading for 30 days after it begins.

Institutional investors bought about 43% of the offering and retail investors snapped up about 57%. The IPO drew more than 150,000 bids, and demand exceeded supply at the upper end of the price range by many times, the company said.

Among retail investors, shares were allocated as follows: for single bids upwards of 100,000 rubles, the allocation was about 4.4%, bids of up to 100,000 rubles were met so that the investor received at least five shares, and bids for five or fewer shares were met in full, as were bids from company employees.

Europlan shares have been included in the Moscow Exchange's Level One listing and will begin trading under the ticker LEAS on Friday.

Europlan, founded in 1999, specializes in leasing cars, trucks, other commercial vehicles and heavy equipment.