Russia's Digital Sky Technologies to offer up to 25 pct at IPO

© RIA NovostiRussia's Digital Sky Technologies to offer up to 25 pct at IPO
Russia's Digital Sky Technologies to offer up to 25 pct at IPO - Sputnik International
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Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which owns the Mail.ru mailing system, Odnoklassniki.ru social network site and ICQ instant-messaging service, plans to sell 10-25% of its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2011, Vedomosti business daily said on Thursday, quoting sources close to DST.

Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which owns the Mail.ru mailing system, Odnoklassniki.ru social network site and ICQ instant-messaging service, plans to sell 10-25% of its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2011, Vedomosti business daily said on Thursday, quoting sources close to DST.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan will be appointed lead-managers, the paper said.

DST and the banks declined to comment.

The initial public offering is scheduled for spring 2011 and will be held on the LSE's Alternative Investment Market, a source close to the leads said. A source close to DST said it might be held on the LSE's Main Market.

Vedomosti quoted Uralsib analyst Konstantin Belov as saying DST should be attractive for investors, because it controlled Russia's top Internet companies.

DST hopes to be valued at $6 billion during the IPO, Vedomosti quoted an unnamed Internet company manager as saying, while Alexei Kurasov, head of Finam corporate finance department, thinks DST may be valued at $5-6 billion due to the growth of its portfolio companies. Mail.ru and Odnoklassniki.ru more than doubled their 2009 revenues.

The companies can boast a good synergy effect, while DST can make more acquisitions, Belov said.

In April, DST sold a 10% stake to China's Tencent and was valued at $3 billion during the deal. In mid-July, when the South African media holding Naspers swapped a 39.3% stake in Mail.ru for 28.7% of DST shares, DST was valued at almost $4 billion.

In late 2009, Mail.ru acquired the Astrum video game producer, while in July 2010 DST raised its Mail.ru stake to 99.9%. DST is now negotiating the acquisition of shares from minority holders of Odnoklassniki.ru so ICQ and Odnoklassniki.ru can merge with Mail.ru making its subsidiaries controlled by one management team, Vedomosti quoted a source close to the companies as saying.

DST also holds 25% stakes in Vkontakte.ru social network site and OE Investments, which operates the Integrated Instant Payment System and e-port payment systems. It also owns stakes in smaller assets such as HeadHunter, Free-lance, Sape and Nigma, the paper said. DST also holds 10% in the world's most popular social network Facebook.

DST was established in 2005 by Russian metals magnate and billionaire Alisher Usmanov and businessmen Yuri Milner and Grigory Finger.

 

MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti)

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