Megafon announces IPO plans
MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Megafon officially announced plans to hold an IPO on Tuesday.
The cellular provider said in a statement for the London Stock Exchange that TeliaSonera and Megafon Investments would be the selling shareholders.
The company will use the IPO proceeds to settle current debt and for corporate purposes, including network development.
Morgan Stanley and Sberbank are global coordinators for the deal and Credit Suisse, Citigroup and VTB Capital are joint bookrunners.
A source close to the deal told Interfax that the organizers would have an over-allotment option of 15%, with shares to be provided by the sellers on a pro-rata basis.
Investor education starts on Tuesday.
Megafon could offer Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) on the LSE at the end of October, representatives of the investment community have told Interfax. The Kommersant newspaper said on Tuesday that the IPO could take place on November 1 and that a road show was expected to begin on October 22.
The Russian Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) gave Megafon permission to have its shares traded outside of Russia on September 28. The permission applies to 123.38 million shares, but not more than 20% of Megafon's charter capital.
Kommersant said on Tuesday, quoting sources close to the IPO organizers, that the offering might be lowered to 15%. As expected, TeliaSonera will offer the bulk of the shares and Megafon Investments s modest stake. Alisher Usmanov, the controlling shareholder, will not be selling shares, the paper said.
MegaFon's main shareholders are firms associated with Alisher Usmanov that own a controlling stake of 50% plus one share. TeliaSonera owns 35.6% and MegaFon Investments has 14.4%. Usmanov's stake was recently transferred to a unified holding, Garsdale, with the owners of LLC Scartel.
A series of transactions between Megafon's shareholders in April this year valued the telco at approximately $20 billion.