OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2009. Bank St. Petersburg will offer 74m of convertible preferred shares through open subscription in the coming weeks, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE FC.

The bank intends to raise up to US200m in Tier-1 equity.  The referred shares will offer 13.5% dividend yiled on the placement price in dollard. The share will be converted into common shares in May 2013.

View: We believe the open subscription suggests that the bank's need for tier-1 capital is much higher than it initially expected--after the minor losses in 1H09, 2H09 could be even more difficult. In its initial guidance Bank St. Petersburg initially was only to convert an existing US 100m subordinated loan into tier-1 and execute pre-emptive rights. The relatively high dividend yiled in dollars may represent an interesting opportunity to enter the common stock.