Trading in Russia’s PIK shares to resume

Shares in Russia’s largest housing developer PIK are set to resume trading in London today after a month of suspension due to a legal dispute, PIK said yesterday.

A court had frozen an 8.6 per cent stake in the company as part of a conflict between PIK shareholder Yuri Zhukov and mid-size lender Nomos bank, which used PIK shares owned by Zhukov’s company Maritrade Investments Limited as collateral for the £168.9m loan.

PIK later fully redeemed the loan to Nomos on February 22, having borrowed cash from Otkritie bank, potentially paving the way towards a secondary share placement expected in the first half of this year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“PIK announces that the Arbitrazh Court of the City of Moscow has issued an order rescinding the freezing order relating to 42,402,773 PIK shares, granted to ... Nomos-Bank by the court in connection with a legal dispute between Nomos-Bank and Maritrade Investments Limited,” the company said in a statement.

“PIK expects that the GDRs will be readmitted to the Official List and to trading on the LSE... on March 15, 2011,” the statement said.

PIK’s Moscow-traded shares were up 2 per cent, slightly outperforming the market, but hardly moved on the announce- ment.

Analysts said the news was not a surprise and trading was expected to resume since the loan was paid off.

PIK, 38 per cent owned by Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, builds low-cost homes in Moscow and its suburbs.

Related topics: