Russian developer Etalon delists from LSE

ST. PETERSBURG. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Russian developer Etalon Group has delisted its Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) from the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

The delisting went into effect at 8:00 a.m. London time on Thursday. The last day of trading for the company's GDRs on the LSE was August 16.

The company announced its plans to delist from the LSE on July 18. Etalon Group said at the time that it planned to continue its listing on the regulated market of the Moscow Exchange.

The company's GDRs had a primary listing on the LSE since 2011, and in 2020 they also began to trade on the Moscow Exchange.

Etalon Group's board of directors decided in May to begin the process of obtaining a primary listing in Moscow. This required registering the prospectus for the company's existing GDRs with the Central Bank of Russia, which was done in July.

Gazprombank Investment analysts said earlier that changing the listing status in Moscow to primary could indicate that the company was taking the first steps toward redomociliation.

"In 2022, many Russian companies with foreign residency and Global Depositary Receipts placed abroad faced problems due to restrictions on the movement of capital. Such a situation makes it difficult to transfer money between accounts, which is why many companies are refraining from paying dividends. Redomiciliation can help get around problems with regulatory restrictions," the analysts said.

Etalon Group, which is focused on residential real estate for the middle class, has a land portfolio of more than 6.6 million square meters.

The group's largest shareholder as of the end of May was Sistema PJSFC with 48.8%. Mubadala Investment Company owned 6.3% of the developer, Kopernik Global Investors held 5%, Prosperity Capital held 4.1%, Etalon Group management owned 0.6% and the free float was 35.2%. The company has not published more recent information.