Russian firms may hold 30 IPOs, gain $36 bln in 2008 - Deutsche Bank

“There will be perhaps 30 IPOs, worth around $36 billion in total. This is our forecast,” said Dmitry Snesar, who co-leads the Global Banking in Russia department. However he said that the figures will depend on the market, and the companies involved will be related to infrastructure, metallurgy, mining, consumer goods and banking. Snesar said the IPOs are expected no earlier than the Q2 of 2008, when loan rates level off on world markets. “We do not expect any deals in the Q1 of 2008 for objective reasons. We believe the vast majority will take place in the second and third quarters of next year,” he said. He ruled out that Russia might be faced with a systemic crisis of IPOs. “There will be no all-out IPO crisis in Russia. On the contrary, we will see companies from new sectors [launch IPOs], such as infrastructure, logistics, and others,” Snesar said.

According to Ernst & Young, Russia tops the list of European countries in terms of IPO-attracted funds in 2007, rated third throughout the world after the US and China. World IPOs totaled $88 billion, with 531 share placements on global stock exchanges in April-June. (rian.ru)