OREANDA-NEWS. On January 23, 2008 the MICEX Stock Exchange arranged a round table conference devoted to bank equity liquidity growth potential for the Russian stock exchange, the potential of IPO to be completed by Russian banks and summarizing of IPO made by Bank Saint-Petersburg. 
   
The round table conference involved a top management of Bank Saint-Petersburg, the executives of  the FFMS of Russia, the CBR and the MICEX, the representatives of Bank Saint-Petersburg’s IPO  arrangers as well as leading analysts specializing at appraisal of the banking sector, the  representatives of the banks, managers and investors as well as mass media comprising altogether more than 60 participants.  

The representatives of Bank Saint-Petersburg marked the advantages of the offering transaction structure selected by the bank which implied the use of temporarily GDR facility. The use of GDR allowed for the rapid commence of trading in securities of Bank Saint-Petersburg and streamlining the vehicle of bank equity offering. In their turn the IPO arrangers noted that the choice of listing exclusively on the Russian exchanges made by the Bank let complete the share offering in a record term, i.e. during four and a half months.  

As to the potential which banks have in terms of IPO the round table participants came to a conclusion that there would be a high interest from the side of investors to initial public offerings made by the banks in the nearest years, notwithstanding the troublesome conditions inherent to the financial markets. The demand however would become more selective, the investors having just enough objects in the banking sector of the Russian exchange market for making investments.