Magnit, Russia’s largest retailer, said its shareholder Lavreno plans to sell a one per cent stake to fund a “separate investment.”
Lavreno is selling as many as 1 million shares in an accelerated private placement managed by Morgan Stanley and VTB Capital, Magnit said today in a statement. Cyprus-based Lavreno is linked to billionaire CEO Sergey Galitskiy, according to Vedomosti daily.
“The ‘separate investment’ mentioned in the announcement may refer to a new stadium Galitskiy is building in Krasnodar for his football club,” said Yulia Bushueva, who helps manage about $500 million at Arbat Capital in Moscow. “After loans became very expensive, he’s probably chosen to sell shares to fund it.”
The share sale may raise as much as 10.3 billion rubles ($152 million) based on today’s closing price in Moscow. Galitskiy plans to remain a long-term strategic investor in Magnit and will be prevented from selling more shares for 90 days, according to the statement.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
