MOSCOW (Reuters) – MTS Bank, the fintech arm of leading Russian mobile operator MTS, said on Friday it would hold an initial public offering (IPO), a rare occurrence for Russian banks hit by Western sanctions.
MTS Bank will become only the second Russian bank to go public since the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow over its decision to send tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
In early April, the Central Bank of Russia registered an additional issue of 7.187 million ordinary shares of MTS Bank with a par value of 500 rubles each. This was 19.3% more than the bank's increased authorized capital.
“The funds raised through the IPO will be used by the bank to implement its growth strategy and further expand its high-margin retail banking business,” the bank said in a statement.
The majority shareholder MTS does not plan to sell its shares and retains the majority stake in the bank's capital.
Four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in February that MTS Bank planned to launch an initial public offering in the spring and could raise up to 15 billion rubles ($160.3 million).
MTS Bank, which is subject to Western sanctions, achieved a record net profit of 12.5 billion rubles in 2023.
MTS Bank's IPO is the second IPO of a bank in Russia since 2022, following Sovcombank's IPO in 2023.
($1 = 93.5400 rubles)
(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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