Vostok Nafta, KIT Finance sell Alrosa stock
MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - The oldest minority shareholders in OJSC Alrosa , Russia's diamond monopoly, the investment fund Vostok Nafta and the bank KIT Finance , who have held stock in Alrosa from even before it acquired public status in April of last year, after securing full-fledged listing on the MICEX have cut or sold off their stakes in the company.
Vostok Nafta for two quarters in a row reduced its stake (0.46% at the end of Q3 last year) by half, while KIT Finance divested itself fully last year.
Judging from Vostok Nafta's quarterly report, in Q1 2012 the fund sold 7.25 million shares (0.09%) of Alrosa stock. The funds stake in Alrosa capital was 0.11% of stock on March 31. Vostok Nafta's entire Alrosa portfolio holding dropped to 2.1% from 3.2% at the beginning of the year.
The fund's stake is valued at $8.45 million, the value of one share being $1.06. Based on that, 100% of Alrosa was an estimated $7.81 billion this March 31.
Alrosa shares were trading on the MICEX-RTS at 24.73 rubles per, corresponding to company capitalization of $6 billion. Since this year began, Alrosa stock has lost 18.5% of its value.
KIT Finance, which had held around 0.83% of the stock in Alrosa, had none at the end of the year, as indicated by the bank's International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) financial report for 2011.
After a stock split last year, Alrosa's share capital was 7,364,965,630 ordinary shares with par value of 0.5 rubles.
The Economic Development Ministry and the diamond monopoly are working up an option for the privatization of 14% of the company's stock (7% from each of the federal and Yakutia holdings) in the form of an IPO on the MICEX-RTS. Investment bank consultants JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and VTB Capital consider optimal the placement of the shares for not less than $1 billion, otherwise the shares would not be sufficiently liquid. Having each sold 7%, the Russian Federation and Yakutia will retain a respective 44% and 25% of Alrosa capital.