Cleary Gottlieb acted as international counsel to Segezha Group (Segezha) in its initial public offering and listing of ordinary shares on the Moscow Exchange.
The offering consisted of 3.75 billion new shares, representing 31.4% of Segezha’s current share capital, raising RUB 30 billion in gross proceeds that will be used to fund its investment program and to optimize leverage. The offering priced at RUB 8 per share on April 28, 2021, and closed on April 30, 2021, matching its final IPO offer price and implying a market capitalization of RUB 125.5 billion ($1.68 billion).
The IPO book was two times oversubscribed and attracted leading institutional investors from Europe, the UK, the U.S., and Asia, alongside strong demand from Russian institutional and retail investors.
The underwriters were J.P. Morgan Securities plc, UBS AG London Branch, VTB Capital Plc, Alfa Capital Markets Ltd, Bank GPB International S.A. (a member of Gazprombank group), BofA Securities, and Renaissance Capital.
Segezha is a leading Russian vertically integrated holding company in the forest industry performing a full cycle of operations from logging to advanced wood processing. Segezha is a subsidiary of Russian conglomerate Sistema PJSFC, and is the fourth Sistema portfolio company currently traded on the public markets. Segezha is also the first Russian vertically integrated forestry company to be publicly traded.