Russia’s children retail giant launches major IPO

Global Business

Russia's children retail giant launches with major IPO

Russia’s largest toy retailer, Detsky Mir, has announced an IPO — the highest-profile share sale by a Russian company since 2014.

CGTN’s Daria Bondarchuk reports.

It raised nearly $355 million for its key selling shareholders – Russian conglomerate Sistema, which has a majority stake, and the Russia-China Investment Fund.

The fund sees this public offering as a first sign of foreign investors gradually returning to the Russian equity market.

Despite the shrinking disposable income of many Russians, Detsky Mir has expanded its chain of stores across Russia and former Soviet republics to over 600, and showed revenue growth of over 30 percent last year.

The children’s retailer’s rapid growth was partly supported by some $150 million of investments made by the Russia-China Investment Fund.

The joint Fund attracted partners from the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Asia to the IPO.

And investor sentiment about Russia seems to be improving as over 90 percent of demand came from foreign buyers.