Russian billionaires Mikhail Prokhorov and Suleiman Kerimov have both bought in to the secondary public offering by Russia’s second largest lender, VTB. Prokhorov’s Onexim Group has invested over $400 million in bank stock.
The news came from VTB first deputy president and Chairman Yury Soloviev who spoke to Vedomosti business daily.
Russia’s 20th richest man according to Forbes, Suleiman Kerimov
also invested in VTB equities. In 2011 during the SPO the
companies he controls invested $500 million in the
state-owned bank. According to Soloviev, one of Kerimov’s
companies – Millenium – has increased its share in VTB, however
the exact amount of investment hasn’t been revealed.
Around 55 percent of the new shares sold in VTB's capital raising
were purchased by the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar,
Norway and Azerbaijan.
According to an unnamed source of Vedomosti newspaper Norges
Bank Investment Management invested $700 million, while
Qatar Holding LLC and the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan
(SOFAZ) invested $500 million each. Brazilian BTG Pactual
and China Construction Bank have reportedly also purchased VTB
equity worth $100 million each.
VTB’s secondary public offering was held between May 6 and May
22. New shares were distributed among a narrow circle of 10
institutional investors and private shareholders. A total of
1245 investors purchased VTB stocks in the first two weeks. Nine
deals accounting for 86% of the placement have
been concluded in the last two days. The bank attracted a
total of 102.5 billion roubles ($3.3 billion) of investment.