Sberbank requests clearance to trade 25% of shares abroad
MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - Sberbank has asked the Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) for clearance to trade 25% of its ordinary shares or 5,396,737,000 shares abroad in the form of depositary receipts, the bank said.
Bank of New York Mellon will be the depositary.
The bank names London and Frankfurt among the exchanges where the shares might trade.
It submitted the application to the FFMS on May 24.
Sberbank has previously spoken of plans to list ADR in London before it sells a portion of the state's stake in the bank. "We will conduct the listing in London before the privatization sale," Sberbank chief German Gref said earlier in May.
Sberbank may convert up to 25% of shares into depositary receipts. "We are not doing a supplementary issue right now. We are creating an instrument for converting existing shares into depositary receipts," Gref said.
Foreign investors own 33.4% of Sberbank; it will be much more convenient for them to hold depositary receipts rather than shares.
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