Russian miner GV Gold plans Moscow IPO

[MOSCOW] Russian mid-sized gold miner GV Gold, whose shareholders include US fund BlackRock Inc , said on Monday that it plans to hold an initial public offering (IPO) and float its shares on the Moscow Exchange to diversify shareholder structure.

The private firm has long considered going public, having first proposed an IPO in 2007 just before the global financial market crash.

Reuters had reported last Friday that GV Gold planned to announce an IPO soon, citing three financial market sources. Two sources close to the matter told Reuters in February that its potential listing could value it at up to US$2 billion.

"An IPO on Moscow Exchange will enable us to take our growth story to a wide range of investors and further diversify our shareholder structure," Chief Executive Vladislav Barshinov said in a statement.

The company, which did not give a date for the planned IPO, said it would not sell any shares itself and that it would not receive any proceeds from the IPO.

The Russian miner said the selling shareholders were Sergey Dokuchaev, Natalia Opaleva, Valerian Tikhonov, Sergey Vasilyev and BlackRock.

GV Gold said on Monday that it plans to raise annual gold production to 400,000 troy ounces by 2025. The company, which plans to produce 290,000-300,000 troy ounces in 2021, is currently Russia's eighth-largest gold producer.

REUTERS