Report: PhosAgro considers share offering this week – sources

MOSCOW, Feb 6 (PRIME) -- Russian fertilizer producer PhosAgro is considering a secondary share offering this week, three financial market sources told Reuters on Monday.

A number of Russian companies are looking to tap the equity market this year as investor appetite for Russian assets recovers.

Steel pipe maker TMK raised about U.S. $170 million in a share sale last week and toy seller Detsky Mir is expected to price its initial public offering on Wednesday.

“On Wednesday, there is a possibility that PhosAgro will have its secondary placement,” one of the sources said. The sources gave no details.

PhosAgro, one of the world’s largest producers of phosphate rock, an essential agricultural nutrient, declined to comment.

The company has benefited from the weak ruble giving it lower costs and higher export revenues.

It expects at least stable revenues, core earnings and profits in 2017, PhosAgro Chief Executive Officer Andrey Guryev told Reuters last month.

Shares in PhosAgro were down 3.3% by 5.27 p.m. Moscow time on Monday, against a 0.9% decline in the broader market index. They had risen about 9% from the start of 2017 to the market close on February 3.

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