Sberbank management (seen in the picture is deputy chairman Bella Zlatkis) hope to point the price of its stock upward.
Photo: Valery Levitin
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Sberbank Package Sold High
The Russian Federal Property Fund sold 2176 shares (0.01088% of the authorized capital) in Sberbank at auction yesterday for a price higher than their market price. The buyer was the Russ-Invest investment company, the legal successor to Sergey Mavrodi's MMM-Invest. The current management of the company called the deal a “long-term investment in the interests of the company,” but others say that the deal made no financial sense and call it an attempt influence the supply of investors participating in the Sberbank additional stock issue.
The opening price of the stock was 143 million rubles. Russ-Invest paid 198.2 million rubles for it, that is, 91,100 rubles per share, which was 1.76 percent higher than its prices on the MICEX at the time Russ-Invest filed its applications (deadline was February 8). There were four participants in the auction, which was closely watched by the market, since it comes just before Sberbank's additional stock issue of 3.5 million common stocks.
Dmitry Bedenkov, chief of the Russ-Invest analytical department, told Kommersant that the purchase of the stock was “a long-term investment.” He admitted that the shares could easily have been purchased less expensively on the market. The company does not intend to take part in the additional stock issue. The company was in 32nd place among investment companies by volume of operations with securities (55.6 billion rubles) in a Dengi financial weekly ranking on July 1, 2006. Its net profit for the first half of 2006 was 251 million rubles.
“If Sberbank was trying to give the market price orientation that way, I would consider it a sign of desperation,” a banker questioned by Kommersant commented. “Sberbank hasn't convinced investors that they should acquire stock from the addition issue at market value yet.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 15, 2007
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