London Stock Exchange And MICEX Stock Exchange Sign Joint Marketing Agreement

The London Stock Exchange and MICEX Stock Exchange today signed a joint marketing agreement to promote Russian IPOs on their respective markets. Under the agreement, the exchanges will pursue joint marketing initiatives to raise awareness of how to conduct an IPO on the capital market. These initiatives will include the production of marketing materials and hosting IPO conferences in the Russian regions. The exchanges will also organise roadshow presentations of Russian companies to international investors in the major European business centres.

Commenting on the agreement, Clara Furse, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange, said:
“We are delighted to announce this Agreement with MICEX Stock Exchange. We look forward to contributing to the development of Russia’s capital markets by working with MICEX Stock Exchange to raise awareness of the IPO opportunities for Russian issuers and investors.”

Alexei Rybnikov, Chief Executive of the MICEX Stock Exchange, said:
“We are seeing a strong pipeline of Russian companies who are interested in raising equity capital to finance growth. We are pleased to be working with the London Stock Exchange to assist Russian issuers to reach their ambitious goals.” To mark the launch of the Agreement, the exchanges are hosting a joint conference on “Raising Capital in Russia and Abroad: Trends and Developments”, in Moscow on 1-2 March 2006.

A total of 10 companies with a large proportion of their assets in Russia are listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market. In January 2006 the Exchange’s member firms traded a record $14.8 billion of Russian securities, an increase of 328 per cent on the same period last year. Trading in Russian securities represented around 69 per cent of the total trading volume on the International Order Book (IOB) in January 2006.