Russian Finance Ministry expects one good placement of state-owned company on stock market in 2026
MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry can speak of at least one significant placement of a company with state participation on the equity capital market in 2026, a decision on which has already been practically made, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said.
"I thought and said that this year we would likely see two companies [with state participation enter the stock market]. But now I can speak more or less confidently about one, where a decision has already been more or less made. And I think we will see one good placement this year," Moiseyev said at the Moscow Exchange Forum.
The Finance Ministry expects this to be a quite significant placement, comparable in price parameters to last year's IPO of DOM.RF, he said.
Moiseyev told journalists on the sidelines of the forum that he was referring to an SPO, but declined to specify which sector he was referring to. The Finance Ministry o is targeting the end of the third quarter, he said.
Speaking at a forum session, Moiseyev said the approval at the end of last year of a long-term incentive program, linked in part to capitalization, had changed the attitude of state-owned companies' top management to going public. However, relevant agencies remain wary of attracting private investors and their participation in corporate governance.
"The long-term management incentive program really has worked some magic. The same managers who came to me and said their company was so strategic that they should never allow a single private investor into it are now coming to me and asking how they can do an IPO to institute a long-term incentive program. I won't name these companies, but I see five or six companies that I've always wanted to go public or increase their free float, and which have always categorically refused to do so at all costs, are now showing a great deal of interest," Moiseyev said.
"And it won't always be ordinary shares - in some cases there'll probably be preferred shares, because they aren't willing [to grant voting rights to minority shareholders]. Unfortunately, [sectoral ministries] don't want to see minority shareholders represented on boards of directors," he said.
"But we'd like to work on the premise that it's the first step that counts, and we need to do something. So in some cases, we might have placements of preferred shares," he said.
