MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian state-controlled retail savings bank Sberbank [RTS: SBER] has set the price of its additional share issue at 89,000 rubles (about $3,396) per share, the finance minister said Wednesday.
"Today the bank's supervisory board has made a decision to set the cutoff price at 89,000 per share," Alexei Kudrin said, adding that bids were worth more than 260 billion rubles ($9.9 billion).
"Initial estimates put the capital funding at 230 billion rubles ($8.8 billion), considering the cutoff price," Kudrin, a member of the supervisory board, said. The final worth of the share issue will be assessed within six weeks, he said.
Sberbank's additional share issue is worth 10.5 billion rubles (about $396 million) at par. Russia's largest household savings bank plans to place 3.5 million shares, with a face value of 3,000 rubles (about $113) each.
Shares will be placed only via open subscription on the Russian market. Private individuals will also be able to purchase Sberbank's additional stock.
Sberbank is Russia's largest bank, with 60.57% of its shares controlled by the Central Bank. Sberbank's branch network includes 17 regional banks and 832 branches. On January 31, the Central Bank of Russia said it would cut its stake in Sberbank to 55.34% after the additional share placement.
Following the additional share issue, Sberbank's charter capital is expected to grow to 70.5 billion rubles (about $2.7 billion) from the current 60 billion rubles (about $2.3 billion) and will consist of 22.5 million ordinary shares with a par value of 3,000 rubles (about $113) each and 50 million preferred shares with a face value of 60 rubles (about $2.3) each.
The permitted volume for the Central Bank to purchase Sberbank's additional share issue is about 40% of the amount of the stock, which the CBR may purchase by law (2,231,502 shares).
