Conjuncture

The number of applications for Mail.ru Group shares in the IPO has exceeded supply, and the price is close to the upper limit of the range, Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing sources close to the placement.

Mail.ru Group plans to sell about 16% of shares in the form of GDRs on the LSE. The placement price corridor was set at $23.7-27.7 per security. Applications from investors are accepted until November 8.

According to Interfax, the order book by Tuesday was signed for $1.4 billion, which is 1.59 times more than the maximum possible value of the stake being sold ($876 million).

Mail.Ru Group does not comment on this information, but Kommersant’s interlocutors close to the organizers of the IPO (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and VTB Capital) previously claimed that the book was “re-signed” on the second day of acceptance applications.

According to the managing director of Veles-Capital, Mikhail Zak, with increased demand, IPO organizers usually determine the average price and sell securities to all interested investors in proportion or make a price cut-off and satisfy higher-priced offers. The volume of placed securities or the upper limit of the price corridor may also be increased. But Mr. Zak considers the latter option unlikely. Anna Balashova, Alexander Malakhov

Mail.Ru Group is collecting applications