Sole Buyer Snaps up 3.5% of Russian Gazprom

Russian gas giant Gazprom's distribution arm Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie has sold its entire holding of 850,590,751 ordinary shares (3.59%) to a single buyer, Gazprom said November 22. That leaves the state holding an estimated 50.39% of the company. At rubles 222.72 each, the buyer paid rubles 187.7bn, worth $2.9bn November 25.

Priority was given to major institutional investors oriented toward long-term investments but Gazprom did not say who the buyer was, only that "one major all-or-none bid was awarded for the whole batch and it represented 79% of the overall demand. Thanks to the deal format we had chosen, there was no need to adjust the price of shares, which typically happens during secondary offerings. The closing price on the day of the offering was higher than the one the day before by 2.6%."

Gazprom said it was "satisfied with the results of the executed sale of Gazprom's shares, the biggest on the Russian market since 2007 and the second major placement conducted solely at the trading platform of Moscow Exchange."

Although the offering was oversubscribed, the shares were sold at a discount of 11% compared to the closing price of the trading session preceding the placement, Gazprom said. The discount was smaller compared with the weighted average of the preceding three months (7.1%) and with the weighted average price of shares for the last six months (5.5%), "which clearly indicates a high quality of the placement."