SPO in a few hours. Managing Director of Troika Dialog Mikael Gibo:

“Eurasia took advantage of the opening in the market: in addition, the company recently published good results for 2009. Investor interest was high – the deal was completed in a few hours: there was demand from Russia, as well as from continental Europe and the USA.”

Eurasia Drilling

oilfield services group. MAIN owners – Alexander Dzhaparidze (45.84% at the end of 2008), Alexander Putilov (24.48%), Serik Rakhmetov (8.74%). Capitalization – $3.2 BILLION; revenue (US GAAP, 2009) – $1.4 billion; profit – $165 million.

In October 2008, oilfield services company Eurasia Drilling decided to take advantage of the crisis and announced an offer to buy back its shares. Over the course of a year, it collected almost 8.6% of its shares (12.588 million units). And yesterday, it announced that it had sold 8.15% of its securities to investors (almost 12 million GDRs; one share per receipt). The SPO was organized by Goldman Sachs and Troika Dialog. The order book was opened on Wednesday: at the close of trading that day, the company's receipt on the LSE cost $22.26. But the securities were placed at a discount - $19 per GDR, Eurasia reported (yesterday, at the close, the receipt cost $21.9).

Eurasia received $227.5 million. Almost 80% of this amount, or $179 million, the company will return to shareholders in the form of dividends, it said in a statement. This amount corresponds to Eurasia's profit from the share buyback program, it also said. The average buyback price during the buy-back was $4.7 per share; the entire package was supposed to cost Eurasia $59.4 million. The money left after paying dividends and covering SPO expenses, the company will use, among other things, for acquisitions in Russia and the CIS, Eurasia reported.

The average price of Eurasia GDRs since the beginning of the year is $16.96; the receipts rose to $19 only last week, notes Metropol analyst Alexander Nazarov, so the placement can be considered successful. This was not the company's first attempt to sell the repurchased shares. Last November, it was going to place 7.9% of treasury securities on the stock exchange; shareholders could sell another 1.5%. On the eve of the announcement of the deal, Eurasia GDRs cost $17.5 per piece on the stock exchange, the order book was formed at $15.5 per receipt, and the company refused the SPO, a source close to the organizer of the placement said. This time, investors offered almost 23% more. This will also increase dividends - by 19% (in November, the company promised shareholders no more than $150 million). The main part of them - about $82 million will be received by the main owner of Eurasia, Alexander Dzhaparidze.

The exchange was re-drilled