Central Bank to sell MICEX stake ahead of merger with RTS
2011-01-20 18:00:42
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the nation's central bank to sell its 29.8% stake in the MICEX exchange, where the bulk of the country's share trading is concentrated, ahead of a merger with another major trading floor, the RTS, Kommersant business daily said on Thursday.
The MICEX, which hosts about 70% of the country's share turnover and also holds hard currency trading, is in merger talks with the RTS stock exchange. The merger could assist Medvedev's ambition of turning Moscow into an international financial center, but RTS shareholders are not favorable to the merger because of the central bank's holding in the MICEX.
Kommersant quoted Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Savatyugin as saying that Medvedev had ordered the government to work out terms and timing of selling the central bank's stake in the MICEX at the end of December.
The paper said that the central bank's stake amounts to $894 million-$1.043 billion given MICEX's valuation of the RTS of $3-3.5 billion.
"This is quite a serious investment, few people can afford it," MDM bank Chairman Oleg Vyugin said.
The MICEX has proposed RTS shareholders sell 20% of the exchange to it and swap the remaining 80% for MICEX shares.