VTB public offering priced at 0.018225 rubles/share, could raise 169.5 bln rubles

MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) - The supervisory board of directors of VTB has set the price for the state bank's new share offering at 0.018225 rubles per share, the lender reported.

VTB plans to offer 9.3 trillion ordinary shares with par value of 0.01 rubles each or 93 billion rubles in total. Based on the placement price, the bank could raise almost 169.5 billion rubles.

VTB shares have fallen 5.6% in trading today to 2.023 kopecks per share on the Moscow Exchange on news regarding the placement price of the additional issue, which was nearly 15% below Thursday's closing price.

VTB's supervisory board has set the placement price for the additional issue of shares at 0.018225 rubles per share, the bank said in a statement. The closing price of the bank's securities was 0.021425 ruble following the results of the Moscow Exchange's evening session on June 1.

VTB shareholders exercising pre-emptive rights, which they could do from May 23 to June 1, inclusive, applied to purchase 33.5 billion ordinary shares, or 0.36% of the offering. They can buy shares, totaling 334.6 million rubles at par value and 609.8 million rubles at the placement price.

The priority right was valid from May 23 to June 1, 2023, inclusive.

Orders for new shares in the public offering were taken from May 30 to June 1. Potential buyers could apply to buy a certain number of shares with a set maximum purchase price per share (10,000 shares per lot) or with a set maximum total purchase price including commissions.

VTB previously estimated the offering would potentially raise anywhere from 50 billion to 125 billion rubles.

The share issue is essentially for a specific anchor investor. VTB deputy CEO Dmitry Pyanov said last week that the bank has decided on the main buyer of the new shares. "This is one group. I can say that this is a Russian institutional investor of one group," he said, adding that he could not name them.

Frank Media, citing sources, reported that the investors in VTB's market offering could be nongovernmental pension funds close to Gazprombank Group (GPB) . The publication noted the purchase of 30 billion rubles worth bonds by a newly-minted issuer and 22.8 billion rubles worth of shares in the closed-end mutual fund PII-Reserve by the company Pension Holding. The VTB shares will be purchased for this mutual fund, Frank Media's sources said.

VTB in March completed the so-called "state" stage of its recapitalization, totaling 149 billion rubles. This first new share issue was paid for with the Federal Property Agency's shares in Russian National Commercial Bank (RNCB) and through the conversion of a subordinated loan granted with funds from the National Welfare Fund. The Russian Federation's stake in VTB has increased to 76.4% from 60.9% following the share issue.