Sibur considers initial public offering in late 2012

ERJ staff report (PRW)

Moscow -- Russian petrochemicals giant Sibur Holding is said to be considering holding an initial public offering (IPO) in the second half of next year.

The Moscow-based group, which is now 50 percent owned by Leonid Mikhelson, head of Russia's biggest independent natural gas producer Novatek, is still mulling over the best timing to float the firm's stock.

“It is the company size that matters when you decide on floating the stock. There is no sense to go public with small sales volumes. With our sales volume, however, they say we need to make the placement. We are thinking about that,” group project manager Ilya Rogol was quoted as saying by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.

It was in December 2010 when billionaire Mikhelson moved in to buy 25 percent of Sibur and bolstered his holding this March by acquiring the other 25 percent which was held by subsidiary of his company Miracle pending anti-trust approval.

The Russian entrepreneur made clear late last year his aim was to reorganise Sibur by completing disposal by sale or joint venturing it's noncore businesses including tyre manufacture and fertiliser production. He then aimed to take the petrochemicals firm public.

Late in March, Russia's foreign investments review board approved the planned merger of Sibur's tyre manufacturing operations with those of another Russian group, Tatarstan-based Tatneft. The joint venture plan, first agreed in principle last year, would see Tatneft with 51 percent and Sibur Holding with a 49 percent stake in the merged business.

The venture would see Sibur's Sibur Russian Tyres interests joined with the Tatneft controlled tyre maker Nizhnekamskshina, the country's largest manufacturer with a 14 million tyre per year capacity. The merged group would hold a 35 percent market share and have 70 percent of all Russia's tyre output.

Early in April, Sibur revealed it had reached agreement to acquire a 26.3 percent stake in the fertiliser producer Cherepovets Azot from a group of investors. Cherepovets Azot is part of Russia's largest phosphate fertilisers group PhosAgro.

The takeover is aimed at “improving the current capitalisation of Sibur business with respect to the production of mineral fertilisers”, said Sibur. But it stressed that its plan to phase out non-core lines of the business through their sale or merger with other nitrogen fertiliser producers “has not been changed”.

Sibur said earlier that it believed it could remain a minority shareholder in a larger Russian fertilisers group.

From PRW.com (A Crain publication)

Petrochemicals giant Sibur may hold IPO in late 2012 Novosti (Russia)