Alrosa looks to raise $3 bln in 2012 IPO
MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - Alrosa , Russia's diamond monopoly, plans to raise $3 billion with the IPO placement of 20%-25% of shares next year, which would make the company the world's largest listed diamond concern, Alrosa chief Fyodor Andreyev said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Earlier, Alrosa estimated the worth of the 20% stake it planned to offer during the IPO at $1.5-$2 billion, saying that it would be technically prepared for a public offering by the end of this year.
The goal is an IPO in mid-2012, Andreyev said, and Alrosa is considering floors in the United States, Canada, Russia, and Hong Kong for the placement, he said.
Alrosa will host a tender for the selection of an IPO consultant, inviting such banks as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and VTB , Andreyev said. Analyst estimates put the worth of the company's business at between $6 billion to $12 billion, he said.
The company plans to put proceeds from the IPO into expanding production and refinancing debt.
Alrosa plans to be extracting 40 million carats worth of diamonds per year by 2018, investing around $7.5 billion in new deposits and expanding underground production at existing ones, Andreyev said.
Russian state property fund Rosimuschestvo owns 50.92% of the company's stock, the Yakutian Property Ministry 32%, and 8% is held in aggregate by eight Yakutian ulus (small districts). The other 9.07% (including 0.2% in Alrosa subsidiaries) is held by both legal entities and private investors.
Alrosa is a closed stock company now, and its shares cannot be bought freely on the market. Nevertheless, some investors such as Vostok Nafta Investment and the bank KIT Finance buy the monopoly's shares from private investors (earlier, the company had an option program allowing company employees, including the rank and file, to buy Alrosa shares).