Press releases 2005

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE WELCOMES SISTEMA TO ITS MAIN MARKET

Largest IPO on the  London Stock Exchange’s markets by an international company since 2001

Sistema, the largest private sector consumer services company in Russia and the CIS, was today admitted to the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market.

At US$ 1.56 billion, the Offering is the largest ever Russian IPO on a public market anywhere in the world.  Sistema’s Offering comprises 1,831,563 common shares in the form of 91,578,150 Global Depositary Receipts, with fifty GDRs representing one common share.   

The listing is the biggest IPO on the London Stock Exchange’s markets by an international company since the IPO of Orange SA in 2001.  

To celebrate the occasion, Mr. Vladimir Evtushenkov, President of Sistema, opened the London Stock Exchange’s markets by switching on ‘The Source,’ a specially commissioned artwork in the main atrium of the London Stock Exchange’s new building in Paternoster Square. He was accompanied by Mrs. Clara Furse, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange.

Clara Furse said:

“We are delighted that Sistema has chosen London for its listing outside of Russia. The capital raised in this IPO demonstrates that London’s markets provide an excellent gateway to international capital for Russian companies along with world-leading regulatory and corporate governance standards.”   

Martin Graham, Director of Market Services at the London Stock Exchange, added:

“Sistema is the first Russian company to join the Main Market in 2005.  With many more Russian companies expressing an interest in a London listing, we anticipate further companies taking their lead.”

A total of 13 Russian companies are traded on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market. In 2004, the Exchange’s member firms traded approximately US$ 64 billion of Russian securities, an increase of 76 per cent on 2003. Trading in Russian securities represented around 59 per cent of the total trading volume on the International Order Book (IOB) in 2004.

The London Stock Exchange attracted a total of 293 IPOs to the Main Market and AIM, of which 49 were international, accounting for 80 per cent of all IPOs in Western Europe in 2004. So far this year, there have been a total of 27 IPOs on the London Stock Exchange’s markets, raising a total of  £1.14 billion.

Sistema was advised by Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley, which are acting as Joint Global Coordinators of the Offering.

For further information, please contact:

Anya Velzeboer     Press Office  +44 (0)20 7797 1222
      newsroom@londonstockexchange.com

Notes to editors:

• About the London Stock Exchange:

 
The London Stock Exchange is one of the world’s leading equity exchanges and a leading provider of services that facilitate the raising of capital and the trading of shares.

The London Stock Exchange is the most international equities exchange by trading in the world and Europe's largest pool of liquidity.  By the end of 2004, the market capitalisation of UK and international companies on the London Stock Exchange’s markets amounted to £3.5 trillion, with £4.7 trillion of equity business transacted over the year.

As of January 2005 there were 2,844 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Of these, 1,809 companies were on the Main Market, including 349  international companies and 1,035 were on AIM, including 120 international companies.

The London Stock Exchange is a Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and is supervised by the Financial Services Authority.

•    About the Market Opening ceremony:

The London Stock Exchange’s markets are opened by a selected dignitary or VIP, pushing a button and setting into motion “the Source” – a dynamic sculpture in the 7-storey atrium of the Exchange’s new headquarters at Paternoster Square.

The Source was unveiled by The Queen at the official opening of the Exchange’s new building on Wednesday 27 July 2004 and consists of 729 spheres, suspended on metal cables stretching the full height of the 32m, 7-storey atrium.  Controlled electronically, each sphere moves independently, forming random shifting patterns or words, numbers and shapes fed in directly from the world's media.

• Top five IPOs on the Exchange’s Main Market in the last five years:

• Russian Companies trading Depository Receipts on the London Stock Exchange:

 AO TATNEFT
 LUKOIL OAO
  GAZPROM
 OMZ
 AO MOSENERGO
 ROSTELEKOM
 SIBNEFT
 MOBILE TELESYSTEMS OJSC
 MMC NORILSK NICKEL
 SURGUTNEFTEGAZ
 WIMM BILL DANN FOODS
 UNIFIED ENERGY SYSTEMS OF RUSSIA
 YUKOS

• About trading Depositary Receipts:

Depositary Receipts (DRs) are negotiable certificates which represent ownership of a given number of a company’s shares and can be listed and traded independently from the underlying shares. There are a number of forms of DRs including American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs), Euro Depositary Receipts (EDRs) and Retail Depositary Receipts (RDRs) – all of which can be listed in London.