Yesterday, Lebedyansky began a road show and announced the price range of the shares offered for placement. The owners of the juice holding plan to begin placing 16.4% of their shares on the MICEX and RTS in mid-March at a price of $34.78 to $38.46 per share, according to a statement from Lebedyansky.

Thus, Lebedyansky shareholders intend to earn $116.5–128.7 million from the placement, which corresponds to a capitalization of $710–785 million. This is comparable to the current capitalization of the dairy and juice giant Wimm-Bill-Dann (equal to $735 million), which is almost three times larger than Lebedyansky in terms of turnover.

In the investment memorandum of Lebedyansky, issued before the IPO, the company's revenue for 2004 is planned at $377 million, net profit - $55 million, clarified on condition of anonymity an employee of a large investment company familiar with the contents of the document. According to him, 16.4% of the company's shares will be sold by the current shareholders, while each of them will remain a co-owner of the company.

The investment company employee found it difficult to say in what proportion the owners would sell their shares. Lebedyansky declined to comment on this issue, as well as where the proceeds from the IPO would go.

The organizer of the offer and the manager of the order book are Deutsche Bank and the United Financial Group (UFG). Lebedyansky will be assisted in its relations with investors by the head of the Halcyon fund, David Hern, who recently joined the company's board of directors and is known in the market for his work at RAO UES of Russia. UFG and Deutsche Bank declined to comment yesterday.

The announced plans exceeded the expectations of analysts, who two weeks ago estimated 15% of Lebedyansky shares at $45-70 million. Troika Dialog analyst Victoria Grankina expects that Lebedyansky owners will be able to sell shares at the average price of the proposed range. “The company’s stake looks expensive relative to revenue, but this is offset by good profitability,” Grankina notes. “Lebedyansky’s profit forecast is more than twice as high as that of its main competitor, Wimm-Bill-Dann,” notes Aton analyst Alexey Yazykov.

Renaissance Capital analyst Natalia Zagvozdina has no doubt that Lebedyansky will be able to place its securities in the planned price range. “Interest in the consumer sector in Russia today is quite high among investors,” Zagvozdina reminds. “The market has a big appetite for companies in this sector,” agrees Yazykov from Aton. Metropol IFC analyst Natalia Milchakova predicts the juice market will grow by 7-8% per year until 2010.

Interest in Lebedyansky's papers is also fueled by Coca-Cola's negotiations to buy its competitor, the St. Petersburg company Multon. Analysts point out that Multon and Lebedyansky are being advised by OFG. "For many investors, Lebedyansky is a potential target for takeover by a large international manufacturer," says Zagvozdina from Renaissance Capital.

Placing shares on the stock exchange is not yet very popular among Russian companies in the consumer sector, but it is no less successful. At the end of last year, the retail chain “Sedmoy Kontinent” placed an additional issue of 15% of its authorized capital on the RTS for $80 million with an annual turnover of about $340 million. Earlier, the perfume concern “Kalina” attracted $25.5 million on the Russian platform for a 33% stake with revenue of $166 million. And in 2002, the placement of a blocking stake in the dairy and juice giant “Wimm-Bill-Dann” on the New York Stock Exchange brought its owners and the company about $200 million.

"Lebedyansky" assessed itself