OREANDA-NEWS. May 18, 2007..  Bank Vozrozhdenie closed the open book auction of its 20th issue of shares. The full 3 million of new ordinary shares have been subscribed for and fully paid.

“Vozrozhdenie was the first bank in Russia to raise new equity capital by offering shares on the open market.” said Alexander Dolgopolov, Vice-Chairman. “The successful result of our 20th issue confirms the efficiency of our business model for professional investors and gives us the opportunity to increase our capital to support the development of our commercial clients businesses and improve services to individual customers of the bank.”

The new issue has increased the number of Vozrozhdenie shares outstanding by 13.6% to 25 million shares. The Bank’s shareholders equity has increased by 82%. As estimated approximately 20% of the issue was acquired on behalf of individual and professional Russian investors. Pre-emptive rights were exercised by 36 shareholders, purchasing 270 thousand shares, or about 10% of the total issue. Management of the Bank did not participate in the issue.

During April management of Vozrozhdenie met more than 70 international and Russian investors during a six-country road show organized with the help of Troika Dialog. The price for the issue, 1520 rubles or $59 per share, was established by the Board of Directors at the close of the road show. New capital raised will therefore be 4.6 billion rubles or $177 million.  Total demand by investors was triple the available number of shares. The final price was 6.0 times the pre-issue book value per share or 3.8 times post-issue value based on IFRS equity at April 1, 2007.