Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye, a company controlled by Gazprom, successfully completed the sale of 850,590,751 ordinary shares of Gazprom (3.59 per cent of the share capital).
The placement was carried out using the trading platform of the Moscow Exchange.
Gazprombank (Joint Stock Company) acted as the arranger and broker of the offering.
As the shares were sold in their totality, Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye reduced its stake in Gazprom's capital to zero. As a result, the free float of Gazprom increased to an estimated 49.61 per cent of the share capital.
The sale price was RUB 220.72 per ordinary share.
During decision-making on the distribution of shares among investors, priority was given to major institutional investors oriented toward long-term investments.
Famil Sadygov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, commented:
“We are satisfied with the results of the executed sale of Gazprom's shares, which has become the largest one in the Russian market since 2007 and the second major placement conducted solely at the trading platform of Moscow Exchange.
The overall demand demonstrated by the buyers during the bids collection procedure was significantly higher than the supply of stocks.
Due to a high level of interest in the Company's shares among investors, the batch of shares was sold at good price levels, with a discount of 11 per cent as compared to the closing price of the trading session preceding the placement.
It should also be noted that, despite a considerable volatility of shares observed in the second half of 2019, the placement was performed with a discount of 7.1 per cent as compared to the weighted average price of shares for the last three months and 5.5 per cent as compared to the weighted average price of shares for the last six months, which clearly indicates a high quality of the placement.
As a result, one major all-or-none bid was awarded for the whole batch. The bid represented 79 per cent of the overall demand. It should be noted that the deviation of the offering price from the weighted average price in the bid book amounted to 1.8 per cent.
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 per cent.
The placement caused an increase in Gazprom's free float. As a result, we expect an increase in the share liquidity as well.”
