MOSCOW, April 24 (RIA Novosti) - MICEX Group, the owner of Russia's leading stock exchange, could hold an IPO later this year, a senior company official said on Thursday.

Konstantin Korishchenko, a Central Bank deputy chairman and MICEX board chairman, also told reporters that the group could borrow funds in the near future, despite "a very positive financial performance," but did not disclose borrowing timeframes or volumes.

MICEX President Alexander Potyomkin told reporters after an annual shareholders' meeting that the company's net profit increased 33% year-on-year in 2007, to 2.5 billion rubles ($107 million).

By total value of trading, MICEX is the largest universal exchange in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe, and is now among the world's top-20 exchanges.