US’ Waddell & Reed buys 5.3% in Russia’s Qiwi in Jul–Dec 2013

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (PRIME) -- The U.S.’ management company Waddell & Reed (W&R) bought a 5.26% stake in Qiwi Plc, the owner of Russian e-payment system Qiwi, in July–December 2013, according to a publication released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and seen by PRIME Tuesday.

W&R bought a total of 2,743,600 of Qiwi’s shares, which were distributed among funds Ivy Investment Management Company, Waddell & Reed Financial, and Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company.

In May 2013, Qiwi held an initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ with the price of U.S. $17 per share, which valued the entire company at $884 million. Qiwi’s shareholders managed to raise around $213 million during the IPO.

In the beginning of 2014, the price of Qiwi’s shares fell by around 20% after a group of deputies has submitted to the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, a bill limiting the size of payments processed via an e-payment system without identifying the sender.

Qiwi’s stocks closed at $39.03 per papers on NASDAQ on Monday.

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