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Genetico valued at $18 mln in small public listing
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Only second Russian IPO since start of Ukraine conflict
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Russian markets cut off from Western capital under
sanctions
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This content was produced in Russia where the law
restricts
coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
(Adds detail, analyst comment)
MOSCOW, April 25 (Reuters) - Russian biotech startup
Genetico raised 178.8 million roubles ($2.2 million)
on Tuesday in an IPO on the Moscow Exchange - only the second
Russian stock market launch since Moscow sent tens of thousands
of troops into Ukraine last year.
An unprecedented package of Western sanctions and Russian
countermeasures have effectively cut Russia's financial markets
off from Western capital over the last 14 months and forced many
Russian firms that were looking to go public to reconsider.
Electric scooter firm Whoosh was the only Russian
firm to stage an initial public offering (IPO) in 2022, in a
debut that raised less than half its initial target and relied
heavily on Russian retail investors for capital.
Before Moscow launched its military campaign, analysts had
said Russia's IPO pipeline looked healthy, with a handful of
well-known companies preparing to go public in major deals.
Genetico, a subsidiary of the Human Stem Cells Institute , sold 10 million shares - representing 12% of the
company's total equity - for 17.88 roubles ($0.2192) apiece in
its IPO on Tuesday, the company said in a statement.
It said it would use the funds raised to develop its
products in Russia, enter foreign markets - across the former
Soviet Union and in Asia - register new test systems and create
candidate drugs for the treatment of rare diseases.
The IPO gave the company a valuation of 1.48 billion roubles
($18 million) - a far cry from the multimillion- and
multibillion-dollar deals Russian companies were placing before
the conflict in Ukraine.
"Western sanctions limit the ability of Russian companies to
attract shareholders when conducting an IPO in Russia," said
Evgeny Kalyanov, an analyst at Moscow-based investment group
BCS.
Nevertheless, he said Genetico's listing showed Russia's
market infrastructure was working, and could signal future IPOs
of Russian firms are a possibility.
($1 = 81.7150 roubles)
(Reporting by Olga Popova and Jake Cordell; Editing by Gareth
Jones and Mark Potter)
