EBRD sold 5.3% stake in Moscow Exchange to the Softline IT group

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has sold its stake in the Moscow Stock Exchange, transferring 5.3% of shares to IT company Softline.

This deal was approved with the terms of a 60% discount from the market value of the shares and the payment of EBRD «exit tax» in the amount of 20% of the deal value. Usually, when foreign companies exit Russian assets, there is an average discount of 50%, but in this case, the legal commission for the control of such transactions agreed to 60%.

At the time of the deal, EBRD owned 120,472,902 shares (5.3%) of Moscow Exchange, which, according to trading information dated October 20, 2023, is estimated at 22.8 billion rubles. As a result of this transaction, after paying exit tax, EBRD expects to receive about 7.28 billion rubles (or $76.3 million at the Central Bank rate).

EBRD joined the shareholders of the Moscow Exchange in January 2012. Then, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the bank acquired 6.29% and 1.25% of the exchange's shares, respectively. Since then, EBRD has been the largest foreign shareholder of the Moscow Exchange. In 2014, the bank suspended investments in Russian projects, and since April 2022, it has frozen Russia's access to its resources.

After the division of the business in the summer of 2022, the Russian business remained independent and began to be represented by Softline. The company's shares began trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange in September 2023, and Softline announced that the share of freely traded shares is about 15.7%.