Cleary Gottlieb acted as U.S., English and Russian counsel to Open Joint Stock Company “ALROSA” and Russian counsel to the Russian Federation and Open Joint Stock Company “RIC Plus,” a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), in connection with the US$1.3 billion sale of approximately 16% of ALROSA’s share capital. The sale was structured as a domestic offering of ordinary shares in Russia and an international offering outside the United States and Russia in reliance on Rule 144A / Regulation S, simultaneously with an offering of ordinary shares in Russia on the MICEX Stock Exchange. The transaction priced on October 28.
Throughout the history of the Russian security market, this was the largest offering of local shares listed on the Moscow Exchange. Moreover, ALROSA’s offering has become the largest public offering of a mining company in the world since June 2011, and the first public offering of a Russian state company in the natural resource sector in the past seven years. ALROSA is the world’s largest diamond mining company based on rough diamond production volume.