In compliance with the government's decision, Vneshtorgbank, which is Russia's second-largest bank in terms of assets and equity, approved last December the placement of additional shares worth 90-120 billion rubles (about $3.5-4.6 billion) through an open subscription on the Russian market and abroad in the first half of 2007.
After the IPO, which is scheduled for May 2007, about 70% of VTB's newly issued shares will circulate on the London Stock Exchange, 25% on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 5% on the stock markets of the Russian Trading System and the Moscow Inter-Bank Currency Exchange, the source said.
"The price range for VTB's global offering will be announced April 26," a spokesman for the bank's retail division VTB24 said, adding that the IPO price will be announced May 11, after a meeting of the bank's supervisory board.
Vneshtorgbank CEO Andrei Kostin earlier said VTB would begin accepting applications from individuals for its offering from April 9 through May 7, with the minimum price of bids totaling 30,000 rubles (about $1,153).
The government of Russia is VTB's key shareholder, holding 99.9% of its stock. After the share placement, the government's stake in Vneshtorgbank will drop to 75% plus one share.
VTB's IPO follows the share offering by state-run retail savings bank Sberbank.
Sberbank held its domestic rights offering of 3.5 million new shares at 89,000 rubles (about $3,396) per share through open subscription between February 22 and March 24 to raise 230.24 billion rubles (about $8.86 billion) to meet growing demand for loans, the bank's press office earlier said.
Overall, Sberbank placed 2,586,948 shares or 73.9% of its new share offering, the bank's press office said.
