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Fix Price makes 'landmark' debut for Russian retailer in London

Published: 14:28 05 Mar 2021 GMT

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Fix Price Group Ltd (LON:FIXP), the Russian ‘Poundland’ set the price for its listing on the London Stock Exchange at top of the expected range.

The size of the offer was also increased to US$2bn due to the strong demand said the discount retailer.

Shares were priced at US$9.75 per GDR valuing the group at approximately US$8.3bn. The size of the offer was raised from an in tail target US$1.5-1.7bn, the company said.

Dmitry Kirsanov, chief executive, added it was a landmark for the country’s variety value and the Russian retail sector more broadly.

Major funds backed the float even though sanctions are still place having been imposed on the country in 2014.

Investors included the Qatar Investment Authority, BlackRock, GIC and APG.

The listing consists of global depository receipts offered by some existing shareholders of the company, including Luncor Overseas and LF Group DMCC, which are investment vehicles owned by co-founders Artem Khachatryan and Sergey Lomakin respectively, and a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs.

The founding shareholders will retain a significant interest in the company post-IPO, the firm said.

The retailer will make changes to its corporate governance structure to align with international practices, starting with the appointment of three independent non-executive directors.

They will be Alexander Tynkovan, who founded Russian electronics retailer M.Video, Elena Titova, who has over two decades of experience in investment banking, and Gregor Mowat, an experienced audit and accounting professional.

Fix Price has more than 4200 stores across Russia and has been growing sales rapidly.  In 2020, revenues increased by 33% to r190.1 bn (US$2.6bn), with net profit of r17.6bn.

Like-for-like sales have risen at double-digit rates every quarter for the past four years.

The GDRs were changing hands at US$9.57 in conditional trading.

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