MegaFon raises £1.1bn in London IPO

Russian operator MegFon began trading today on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) ahead of its listing on December 3, 2012. The firm raised £1.1bn ($1.7bn) in its IPO, the largest new capital raised by a telecommunications company in London since Orange in 2001, according to the LSE.

The offering also brings the total amount of capital raised by Russian new issues on the LSE to £5.1bn this year.

“We received high quality institutional demand from all regions in which the securities were offered,” said Ivan Tavrin, CEO at MegaFon. “The successful pricing of our IPO today is a clear endorsement of MegaFon’s investment case and reflects investor appetite for the Russian mobile data growth story.”

Earlier this week, Swedish operator TeliaSonera’s CEO Lars Nyberg announced that he would be investing $2m of his own money in MegaFon’s IPO Nyberg is a member of the board of directors at the Russian operator and said he would purchase theshares at the offer price.

“I have a strong belief in the future prospects of MegaFon. As a member of the MegaFon board, making a sizeable investment in the company is a way for me to show my commitment,” he said.