Russian discounter Fix Price closes book, could raise $1.7bn in record IPO

Russian discounter Fix Price closes book, could raise $1.7bn in record IPO
Fix Price set the price guidance at $8.75 to $9.75 per Global Depositary Receipt (GDR), aiming for capitalisation of $7.4bn-$8.3bn and looking to raise $1.5bn to $1.7bn from placing 170mn GDRs. This is far above the $1bn previously reported to be targeted by the company. / Fix Price
By bne IntelliNews March 1, 2021

The Russian hard discounter Fix Price has closed its initial public offering book (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in less than one day owing to high demand, Kommersant daily reported on March 1 citing investment banking sources.

Fix Price is one of a set of rapidly growing hard discounters that cater to the lower income Russian population and has been growing very fast in recent years as incomes stagnate, as bne IntelliNews reported recently in an interview with the company’s CEO, Dmitry Kirsanov.

Fix Price set the price guidance at $8.75 to $9.75 per Global Depositary Receipt (GDR), aiming for capitalisation of $7.4bn-$8.3bn and looking to raise $1.5bn to $1.7bn from placing 170mn GDRs. This is far above the $1bn previously reported to be targeted by the company.

Interfax calculated that in the upper range of the guidance Fix Price could become the largest Russian IPO since 2012, beating the offering of En+ in 2017 ($1.5bn).

The GDRs could be sold by the founders of the discounter Artyom Khachatryan and Sergei Lomakin, as well as the Marathon Group of Alexander Vinokurov and Sergei Zakharov, along with Goldman Sachs.

Analysts surveyed by Kommersant noted that Fix Price has solid fundamentals of 19.4% Ebitda margin and also pledged to pay at least 50% of net profit in dividends. Most recently the company has also boosted its board ahead of the IPO.

First launched in 2007, the chain currently operates more than 4,200 stores and achieved a revenue of RUB190bn ($2.6bn), adjusted Ebitda of RUB36.8bn and an adjusted Ebitda margin of 19.4% in 2020. Fix Price had shown 16 consecutive quarters of double-digit like-for-like sales growth up to the end of 2020.

 

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