Russian companies to boost presence on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
HONG KONG. April 18 (Interfax) - Russian companies plan to place several billion dollars on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year, the president of VTB Capital, Yury Solovyev, told journalists.
"We have already carried out several transactions and hold a temporary license for investment operations in Hong Kong. For instance, we took part in the placement of RusAl's shares and working now on a whole series of placements for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This is Russian companies, as well as CIS companies, which we will have the honor of presenting to investors from Hong Kong and China," Solovyev said.
When asked of his appraisal of total placements this, Solovyev said "This is in the billions of dollars, in total".
"This market is characterized by high liquidity. This is one of the most liquid markets in the world. Therefore, and accordingly, the companies that we are trying to present are already highly capitalized," he said.
Solovyev declined to comment on the timing of EuroSibEnergo's initial public offering (IPO) but said: "we are working on this transaction. However, I can't, unfortunately, comment on any specific timing," he said.
He added that "all companies that certain opportunities and a portion of business with the Asian region will be interesting for Asian investors". "Since this is the deepest and most liquid market it adds quite an important quality to the initial placements for many companies," he said.
Commenting of the operations of the Russian companies preparing for placement, Solovyev said "this is primarily energy infrastructure, raw materials, production and manufacturing - both in initial and secondary, transportation infrastructure and several retail and consumer based sectors".
VTB plans to open an office in Hong Kong in the near future.
When asked about his thoughts on VEB's plans for borrowing in offshore yuan, Solovyev said: "We were the first financial group, which did such operators this year," adding "we also borrowed in Singapore and Hong Kong. We'll continue this actively as well - taking part on the market and bringing into clients and issuers".
He said that markets are "naturally quite deep and liquid.
"We also hope to develop forex trading and trade between Hong Kong and Russia. I also believe that the move to local currencies, the ruble and yuan, in trade between the countries is strategically important for us. We are the sole bank that now trades these currencies from Russia and Shanghai, and will continue doing this. We also will carry out these operations jointly with our Hong Kong and Chinese bank partners," Solovyev said.