VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, made a strong debut with its initial public offering in mid-May and helped to restore faith in the entire Russian IPO market in the process. In contrast to the ham-fisted domestic share offering by market leader Sberbank in February, VTB’s transaction, which involved Russian and London listings, was widely considered to have been much better marketed, with the result that both listings attracted widespread investor support.
Citi, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were joint global coordinators, with Russia’s Renaissance Capital joining them as joint bookrunners. VTB sold 1.513 trillion new shares at a final price of 13 kopeks for the Moscow listing and priced the global depositary receipts for its London quotation at $10.56. Both the local and international shares were priced near the top end of their indicative ranges. In total the 22.5% stake raised $8 billion and valued VTB at $35.5 billion, compared with the $89 billion market capitalization of Sberbank. But in stark contrast to the rights issue by Sberbank in February, which was effectively underwritten by the Bank of Russia and a number of Russian oligarchs, VTB attracted sizeable participation from ordinary Russians. VTB reported that it sold $1.6