Gazprom seeks MICEX listing
MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - Russian gas giant Gazprom , whose stock accounts for a large part of Russian stock market turnover but trades unlisted on the MICEX, wants to secure listing on that exchange.
Gazprom has just two independent directors on its board - head of the Civil Procedure Department, Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg State University Valery Musin and chairman of the association Kazenergy Timur Kulibayev - and that is too few for MICEX listing to be secured.
The solution would either be to increase the number of independent directors on the board, which the government has not done for many years, or for the listing rules to be eased, a stock market source told Interfax.
A company statement says "an important direction of Gazprom's activities is undergoing listing procedures on the MICEX. The inclusion of OJSC Gazprom stock on the quotation list of securities admitted to trading on the MICEX will make it possible to lift restrictions on the acquisition of the company's shares by Russian institutional investors - pension and investment funds, insurance organizations. This will increase confidence in the securities of OJSC Gazprom and provide the opportunity to increase the proportion of Russian financial structures among the company's investors."