OREANDA-NEWS. July 12, 2012. On July 04, 2012 the kick-off meeting of Russian Innovation IPO Club was held.  Russian Innovation IPO Club is being established with the support of the Moscow Exchange Innovation and Investment Market (the IIM) and OJSC RVC.

Ongoing development of the Russian economy innovation sector entails building the innovation sector of the Russian public stock market that is being formed also within the Innovation and Investment Market of Moscow Exchange. However, at the moment there is no any official or unofficial public association representing this development.  The establishment of Russian Innovation IPO Club is aimed at promotion of Russian technological companies conducting IPOs, discussion of common issues and sharing experience in a casual environment.

Anatoly Chubais (RUSNANO), Alexander Afanasiev (Moscow Exchange), Igor Agamirzian (RVC), Ivan Rodionov (Higher School of Economics), Alexander Egorov (Reksoft), Alexey Kalinin (Baring Vostok Capital Partners), and Sergey Nedoroslev (Kaskol) participated in the meeting. In addition, top managers and owners of innovative companies which have already floated to the public market, first of all to the IIM, and of those that are preparing to float as well as leading experts of investment and innovation community were among the meeting"s participants.

In his address to the meeting, Alexander Afanasiev, CEO of Moscow Exchange, stressed: “The Innovation and Investment Market embodies an opportunity to buy the future.  This is the market for competitive ideas, feasible breakthroughs, and new demand. We aim not only to attract investments for Russian innovative companies but together with the partners to maintain the innovation sector of the economy by creating new venues for communication between investors and owners of businesses. Russian Innovation IPO Club is designed to become such platform.

The Club"s concept, its goals and key tasks, membership and rules and procedures were considered by the meeting"s participants.  One of the Club"s key tasks is sharing experience in investment generation, including on global markets, as well as promoting the corporate governance best practices and standards among innovative companies. These and other tasks should be solved through communication between all involved parties.

In addition, the participants discussed IPOs of high technology companies and drew conclusions on what conditions were necessary for successful IPO of this type of companies, whether the IIM would become “the Russian NASDAQ” and what proactive steps are needed to achieve this goal, whether “the Russian NASDAQ” could facilitate creating the innovative economy, etc.

Igor Agamirzian, CEO of RVC, said:  “We hope that the creation of the technological companies community will facilitate developing all participants of innovation ladder, from start-ups to companies planning an IPO soon, and this represents a very important factor for the Russian economy to transfer to the way of the innovation development. I believe that the Club will also popularize Russian innovation companies" success stories and Russian stock market and provide necessary assistance for high tech companies to float to the public market”.

The next regular meeting of the Club is scheduled for autumn 2012.

Moscow Exchange Innovation and Investment Market (IIM) is a sector for high technology companies, created by the Exchange together with RUSNANO. At the moment securities of 24 issuers including 7 venture funds with a total capitalization of RUB42.3 billion are traded in the sector.

The Innovation and Investment Market consists of three major segments for companies at different maturity and capitalization levels, as well as for different investor groups:

Innovation and Investment Market (IIM): A sector where innovative companies may issue IPOs/SPOs or launch secondary circulation of securities in any Exchange"s trading modes.

IIM-2 sector: mode for private placements using stock market technology and listings. Secondary circulation is aimed at qualified investors and based on the trading technology intended for trading of large blocks of shares.

IIM-Board (www.ipoboard.ru): a web information sector aimed at creating mechanisms of attracting investments by young innovative companies at their early stages of development.

RVC is a government fund of funds and a development institute of the Russian Federation, one of Russia's key tools in building its own national innovation system.RVC"s authorized capital amounts to over RUB30 bln.  The company is fully owned by the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimuschestvo).RVC has established 12 funds to a total capitalization of RUB26.1 bln, its share amounts to RUB16 bln.  RVC backed funds run a portfolio of 118 companies, invested capital totals more than RUB10.2 bln.