25 Jan 2010 20:06

RUSAL says 229 investors buy shares, raises $2.24 bln with IPO

MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - United Company RUSAL (UC RUSAL) said a total of 229 investors bought shares in the IPO in which it listed 10.64% of its shares, and that the offering raised $2.24 billion.

The Russian aluminum giant said in a statement for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it placed 1,610,292,840 new shares, or 10.64% of its issued shares post-issue, for HKD 10.8 a share.

"The 1,610,292,840 Offer Shares (in the form of Shares or Global Depositary Shares) initially offered by the Company under the Global Offering were moderately over-subscribed. Apart from the 1,610,292,840 Offer Shares initially offered by the Company under the Global Offering, the Joint Global Coordinators on behalf of the Underwriters have over-allocated an aggregate of 225,000,000 additional Shares under the Global Offering," the statement says.

As expected, Russia's Vnesheconombank (VEB) was the largest investor, buying 3.15%. Nathan Rothschild's NR Investments bought 0.48%, John Paulson's Paulson & Co bought 0.47% and firms controlled by Robert Kuok Hock Nien bought 0.09%.

Earlier reports quoting various sources said Libyan Investment Authority, Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings, funds managed by Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch and some other investors bought shares. RUSAL disclosed only those investors with which agreements were reached in December. It did not comment on other buyers.

The statement says that the five largest investors bought a total of 47.8% of the IPO, the biggest ten investors bought 58.4% and the biggest 25 bought 76.7%.

"Pursuant to the Global Offering, 1,835,292,840 initial Offer Shares (in the form of Shares or Global Depositary Shares) (including 225,000,000 Shares which have been over-allocated by the Joint Global Coordinators on behalf of the Underwriters under the Global Offering) have been conditionally allocated to a total of 229 selected professional, institutional and other qualified investors, of which 1,708,974,000 are in the form of Shares and 126,318,840 are in the form of Global Depositary Shares (represented by 6,315,942 Global Depositary Shares). Amongst all the placees, 178 received allocation in the form of Shares only, 48 received allocation in the form of Global Depositary Shares only and 3 received allocation in the form of both Shares and Global Depositary Shares," the statement says.

"Immediately after completion of the Global Offering, the public float of the Company will be approximately 10.64% of the issued share capital of the Company if the Over-allotment Option is not exercised at all and 11.95% if the Over-allotment Option is exercised in full. Immediately after completion of the Global Offering, the Company will have 233 shareholders and will be able to meet the minimum of 100 shareholders upon Listing. Dealings in the Shares are expected to commence at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 27 January 2010," the statement says.

The GDR are expected to start trading on the Paris Euronext on January 27 Central Europe time under the codes RUSAL (RegS) and RUAL (144A).

As of the date of the announcement, the Underwriters involved in the Global Offering are BNP Paribas Capital (Asia Pacific) Limited, Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited, Merrill Lynch International, BOCI Asia Limited, Nomura International plc, Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited, Savings Bank of the Russian Federation, VTB Capital plc, ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (London branch), CLSA Limited, ICBC International Securities Limited, ING Bank N.V., London Branch, NATIXIS, Societe Generale, CJSC Investment Company Troika Dialog , UniCredit CAIB Securities, UK Ltd., Liberum Capital Limited and Macquarie Capital Securities Limited. RUSAL said on January 25 that ICBC International had become a co-lead manager.

"On 23 December 2009, Sberbank entered into a letter agreement with the Company stating an unconditional and irrevocable commitment to assume all rights, claims and obligations of Vnesheconombank (VEB) under the $4.5 billion loan dated 30 October 2008 between the Company and VEB, following a request from the Company. As consideration for such assumption by Sberbank, a commission is payable in cash to Sberbank, in installments. On 29 December 2009, the first installment of the commission of an amount of US$22.5 million was paid to Sberbank by the Major Shareholders," the statement says in addition.

RUSAL has said that following the IPO, Oleg Deripaska's En+ will own 47.59% of RUSAL, Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim - 17.09%, SUAL Partners - 15.86%, and Amokenga Holdings, acting on behalf of Swiss commodities trader Glencore - 8.65%.