INTERFAX. Sberbank of Russia will not perform the listing of its securities on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in the first half of 2008, mulling 2H08. «In the near term, this issue is closed for us and is not topical so far» — the lender’s CEO and board chairman German Gref said at a press conference Tuesday. He pointed out that the near term is the January-June period. «Targets for the first half of the years have definitely been set, but I can only guess what actions will be taken in 2H08» — he said adding that all factors will depend on market conditions. «The current market status is too volatile to launch a GDR program on LSE» — Gref noted.
In late November 2007 Alla Aleshkina who held the seat of Sberbank’s first deputy board chairman at that time said that the lender’s executive board decided to place GDRs on the LSE in the second quarter of 2008 on the basis of its FY07 financial statement.
Later, director of the lending institution’s strategic planning department Dmitry Tarasov pointed out that the bank has no plans to issue additional shares or buy back its securities within the GDR listing procedure. According to him, the technical registration of the GDR program will be carried out and a pool of stock holders could be formed, which could amount to 5% of Sberbank’s shares.
