An unknown company from the third tier has risen in price to 1.3 trillion rubles. This is more than the capitalization of Surgutneftegaz

Within a month, a little-known company from the third tier United Credit Systems (UCS) has risen in price on the stock exchange by 75 times and has overtaken the richest Russian company Surgutneftegaz in terms of capitalization. On Monday, the capitalization of OKS exceeded 1.3 trillion rubles.

Detailed. From February 6, the cost of OKS securities jumped from 740 to 55,490 rubles. On Monday, the capitalization of this company grew by almost 40%. In total, 28 transactions worth 1.5 million rubles took place on the stock exchange, thanks to which OKS managed to overtake Surgutneftegaz in terms of capitalization - 1.3 trillion rubles against 1.26 trillion.

Weirdness. The rapid rise of OKS quotes looks very unexpected. These are illiquid shares of the third tier, with a total of 182 shares in circulation . In January, the papers were traded for only four days, and the turnover of trades for the entire month amounted to 11,580 rubles, which is 130 times less than for today's one day.

What is the company? The main shareholder of OKS is NPF Blagosostoyanie: it owns 91.3% of the company. This is the second largest fund with almost 370 billion rubles under management. Blagosostoyanie works with non-state corporate pensions and serves employees of Russian Railways, which owns 17.5% of the fund. Another 35% stake in Blagosostoyanie is owned by Gazprombank, and the remaining 13.6% is owned by a subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank, RSHB Asset Management. OKS itself owns 54.15% of Absolut Bank, 100% of Absolut Leasing and 31.59% of Transfin-M.

Reaction. Shareholders themselves are perplexed about what is happening. At the very least, the Blagosostoyanie fund has already announced that it plans to ask the Moscow Exchange and the Central Bank to disclose information about those who made transactions with OKS securities. According to the NPF, their fair value cannot exceed 1,000 rubles per share. Blagosostoyanie notes that the value of shares in the fund's pension reserves has not changed - despite the growth in their quotations. If the fund accounted for shares at market value, it would become the most expensive NPF in Russia.

Secret of success. "Welfare" writes off the market miracle on the activity of trading robots, but analysts doubt this.

• It is unlikely that the matter is in robots - they are usually used in operations with blue chips, quotes Kommersant Sergey Suverov, senior analyst at BCS. Rather, someone unsuccessfully took a short position on an illiquid asset, and he had to buy back shares that are not on the exchange at any price, thereby raising the value of the company.
• “Everything looks like Blagosostoyanie is behind the deals with OKS shares. Perhaps the fund is trying to get rid of the asset and thus “inflates” its value or wants to revalue the asset on its balance sheet,” a senior financial markets analyst at a top 10 bank by assets suggested in a conversation with The Bell. According to him, although the fund says that it still accounts for OKS papers on the balance sheet at the old, non-market value, this may change.
• “It is possible that active transactions with OKS securities are due to insider information: for example, Blagosostoyanie became aware that someone wants to buy a block of OKS shares and, under the terms of this transaction, the buyer must send all shareholders an offer with a weighted average for several months price, so that it is deliberately dispersed, ”the head of operations in the Russian market of a large investment company suggested in a conversation with The Bell.

Context. Surgutneftegaz, whose capitalization has just been surpassed by OKS, is the richest company in Russia. At the end of July 2018, the company's liquid assets (short-term and long-term deposits, as well as the amount of funds in accounts) amounted to 2.9 trillion rubles. The company saves money from year to year, not using it for new acquisitions, and does not share it with shareholders, which is reflected in its quotes. Surgut's savings exceeded its capitalization back in 2014.

Anastasia Stogney