Moscow bourse 'worth £3bn'

The upcoming float of the Moscow Exchange could see the Russian stock index valued at nearly £3bn, it was revealed yesterday.

The bourse announced shares will be priced in the range of 55 to 63 roubles, giving it a value of between 120.84bn and 138.41bn roubles (£2.59bn-£2.97bn). The current market capitalisation of the London Stock Exchange is about £3.3bn.

The initial public offering on its own platform is part of an attempt to reverse a trend that has seen the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, bemoan the number of companies from the country choosing elsewhere, including London, for share issues.

The Moscow Exchange, formed in 2011 from the merger of the Russian exchanges Micex and RTS, said it would use the funds from the initial public offering to upgrade its IT infrastructure as well as raise capitalisation levels at its clearing subsidiary.

The listing is expected to raise around 15bn roubles – 9bn roubles of which will come from sales by current shareholders – although the exchange said it may increase this by a further 5bn roubles.