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GidroOGK Saves Russia a Place
The world financial crisis drove mergers and acquisitions down in the world by 31 percent and IPO down in Europe by 95 percent in the first quarter of the year , according to new findings released by the Thomson Financial research company yesterday. Russia was among the top five European countries with the most active M&A markets thanks to GidroOGK's consolidation of assets. World M&A deals were worth $661 billion in the first quarter, down from $962 billion in the same period of last year to the weakest indicator for the first quarter since 2005.
The Russian M&A market's first quarter results did not significantly differ from earlier quarters. Thomson Financial estimated its volume at $14.2 billion, which is 4 percent lower than the first quarter a year ago. On February 11, GidroOGK consolidated its assets, paying $12.4 billion, the fifth largest deal in Europe that quarter. Experts say that the Russian M&A market should remain brisk this year, with RAO UES of Russia continuing its reforms and Russian Railways soon to begin selling off its subsidiaries.
The IPO market fared worse. In Europe, IPO issues were worth $800 million in the first quarter, compared to $13.8 billion last year. The United States scored better only because of the IPO of the world's largest payment operator Visa, worth $19.6 billion. That issue represented 96 percent of the country's IPO market in the first quarter. There have been no Russian IPO since the beginning of the year. The only Russian company that had planned an IPO and postponed it was Nitol Solar, which had hoped to raise $250 million. According to unofficial information, Nitol Solar met with a very low level of interest on the market.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 28, 2008
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