Leading Russian online job search portal HeadHunter is valued at $550mn-675mn ahead of the IPO of 32% of capital as ADS (American Depository Shares on Nasdaq, the company said on April 26, announcing a price range of $11-13.5 per share or $179mn-220mn for the whole placement.

The udnerwriters of the issue Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, VTB Capital, BofA Merril Lynch, and Sberbank CIB will also retain a 30-day option on 5% of the company's shares.

While not a single IPO or SPO was seen in 2018, since the start of this year a number of companies have announced deals including Polyus Gold which raised $390mn from a placement. 

However, the SPO by meat major Cherkizovo has failed, as reported by bne IntelliNews, while  and rail operator RusTransCom that announced IPO plans later called off the offering.

The shares of the HeadHunter will be sold by the Highworld Investments (59.99% of the shares), ELQ Investors VIII (investment division of Goldman Sachs Group, holds 40%). Reportedly, the placement is planned in the end of May - beginning of June, Vedomosti daily reproted on April 26 citing unnamed investment banking sources.

HeadHunter is the leader in the online recruitment segment in Russia with over 50% market share as well as in several neighboring Russian-speaking countries. In 2018 the classifieds market grew by 28% to RUB10.3bn, according to J'Son & Partners estimates cited by Vedomosti daily.

The start-up was founded in 2000 under the name ‘National Job Club’. Starting from 2007, Yuri Milner’s Digital Sky Technologies (which later became Mail.Ru Group) bought stakes in HeadHunter, but Mail.Ru Group sold the company in 2016.

Most recently Russia's largest bank Sberbank acquired 100% in country's third largest online recruitment service Rabota.ru for an undisclosed amount, which could pose competitive threats to HeadHunter.