Shares in Gazprom are traded as unlisted securities in accordance with the Rules of Listing, Admission to Placement and Circulation of Securities and the Rules of Trading in Securities on the MICEX Stock Exchange. After three months, which in accordance with the Rules of Listing is necessary to reach a certain level of market liquidity, the Exchange intends to consider listing Gazprom shares on the MICEX Stock Exchange.
Gazprom shares are traded in the MICEX SE’s trading system in all trading modes, including the main mode, the pre- and post-trading modes, the negotiated deals mode, trading in incomplete lots and the REPO trading mode. The minimal size of the lot is 1 share. The time of trading in Gazprom shares is the same as the time of trading in all other securities admitted to trading.
All 548 traders and about 130 000 of their clients will be able to trade in Gazprom shares.
When organizing trading in Gazprom shares, the MICEX Stock Exchange will apply the rates established for transactions in shares (0.01% of the volume of the transaction, which includes commission for transactions in shares, payment for clearing and the provision of integrated technological service). Trading and settlements for deals in Gazprom shares will be effected in a single position in accordance with the Rules of the MICEX Stock Exchange applied to all securities traded on the Exchange.
Chairman of the Board of the MICEX Stock Exchange and President of the MICEX Alexander Potemkin noted the historical significance of the event by saying that trading in Gazprom shares on Russia’s leading exchange, where the bulk of the liquidity of the Russian stock market is concentrated, is a real breakthrough both for the Russian capital market, which is finally getting the most interesting instrument, and for Gazprom, which is interested in the increase of the liquid market and the growth of capitalization.
The CEO of the MICEX Stock Exchange Alexei Rybnikov said that wide circles of Russian and international investors have received the most effective access to the shares of one of the world’s largest companies. Our advanced technologies secure wholly electronic trading in the real-time mode with access via the Internet. One can hardly overestimate the importance of this fact in the light of the goal of making the stock market an important factor of the growth of the country’s economy.
According to the Director of the National Depositary Center Nikoli Yegorov, NDC has already begun to service Gazprom shares. To make depositors’ work Gazprom shares convenient, NDC has opened inter-depositary depo accounts with Settlements and Clearing Company and Gazprombank and a nominal holder account with SR-DRAGa, which maintains the register of holders of Gazprom securities. NDC rates charged for operations in Russian issuers’ shares will be applied to transactions in Gazprom shares.
Trading in Gazprom shares on the MICEX Stock Exchange has become possible after the adoption of amendments to the RF legislation, at the end of 2005, which liberalized the market of shares of Russia’s largest issuer and lifted restrictions on the number of floors where they can be traded. Market participants expect that the beginning of trading in Gazprom shares on the MICEX SE will improve the attractiveness and the liquidity of the market in these securities and will help to increase Gazprom’s capitalization.
