February 14, 2006
MosNews
Polimetall, Russia’s third largest gold firm and biggest silver miner, said on Monday, Feb. 13, that it plans to float shares in London in November and promised to name lead managers for the listing by the end of this month.
“If there is good demand, we will probably float more than 25 percent,” company head Vitaly Nesis was quoted by Reuters as saying on the sidelines of a precious metals conference organized by the Adam Smith Institute in Moscow. He added that the company planned to offer investors both new shares and shares belonging to existing Polimetall owners.
Polimetall is controlled by investment company Nafta Moskva, which purchased it at the end of 2005.
Nesis said Polimetall plans to increase output of gold by some 20 percent from 7.5 tons in 2005. Output of silver is expected to decline by five percent from 589 tons last year due to a decrease of silver content in processed ores.
Nesis said Polimetall may announce the acquisition of new assets before the IPO. He declined to elaborate, saying only that Polimetall intended to stay within the borders of the Commonwealth of Independent States of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia.
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