Russian online retailer Ozon raises $1.2 billion in country’s best IPO debut since 2011

Strong investor interest in the market debut of one of Russia’s leading e-commerce platforms, Ozon, helped the company to raise more than $1.2 billion when it went public last month.

Ozon announced the results of its dual initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq and the Moscow Exchange on Tuesday. According to its statement, the online giant issued 42.45 million new ordinary shares, including additional shares and the concurrent private placements to the company’s key shareholder, AFK Sistema, and Baring Vostok Fund. Each of the two companies now owns 33 percent of Ozon stock, while pre-IPO investors hold 15.7 percent. Over 18 percent of the e-commerce platform’s shares were acquired by new investors.

The listing became the first Russian IPO on the US stock market since 2019 and was described as Russia’s best IPO debut in nearly a decade by Bloomberg. Ozon received gross proceeds of $1,273.5 million (net proceeds of $1,200.5 million).

When Ozon went public on November 24, it was trading at $30 per share and had double-digit growth in the first hours. Since then, Ozon stock rose more than 50 percent and was trading at $48 per share on Tuesday.

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