Russia's Central Bank announced on Monday the long-awaited sale of a 7.58 percent stake in the nation's largest lender Sberbank in a secondary public offering, in a deal which could be worth around $5 billion.
The sale of up to 1.713 billion ordinary shares will reduce the Central Bank's holding in Sberbank to just 50 percent plus one share.
"It could be reduced to 50 percent in two ways; by a share placement or a sale. Seeing as Sberbank has enough capital to carry out its business plan, a sale remained the only option," Central Bank Deputy CEO Sergei Shvetsov said on Monday.
Ordinary shares will make up 10-15 percent of the offering, Aton brokerage said in a note, adding "the SPO is perfectly timed and in our view the deal could be finalized within days." Those shares will be sold on the MICEX stock exchange.
The price range for an Offer Share has been established at between 91 rubles and the market price at the time of closing of the books, Aton said. The share price will be released on Tuesday, September 18 or Wednesday September 19, a source told Prime news agency.
Market analysts estimate around 15 percent of Sberbank is currently traded abroad in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).
The Central Bank has appointed Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs International, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Troika Dialog as Joint Global Coordinators and joint bookrunners in connection with the global offering.
TPG Capital, a U.S. investment fund, has already submitted a bid to buy shares totaling $1 billion, a source in banking circles told RIA Novosti.
"TPG has submitted a bid worth $1 billion," the source said.
One other investment fund has also applied to buy shares totaling $1 billion, he said.
"Sberbank reached agreement with key investors in advance. Therefore, there was no problem collecting bids," he said.
