VTB says payments under En+ Group IPO no subject to sanctions

MOSCOW, Feb 13 (PRIME) -- Financial transactions to redeem Oleg Deripaska’s En+ debt to VTB Bank from the funds raised in an initial public offering are not subject to the Western sanctions, VTB said in a statement on Tuesday.

“VTB group conducts all its operations in full compliance with applicable rules and regulations including restrictive measures imposed by domestic or foreign organizations and governments,” the statement said.

“Allegations that paying out debt owed to VTB with the funds from EN+ IPO supposedly breached the sanctions regime are unfounded and absolutely false, since these financial transactions are not restricted by sanctions.”

It also said that the IPO was an absolutely transparent transaction executed in full compliance with the necessary market requirements. It became the largest IPO in the metals and mining industry in the world since 2011.

It said that 11 investment banks, seven of them international, including four banks from the U.S., two from Switzerland and one from France, - participated in the preparation and execution of the deal, and the shares were placed mostly among international investors, including those from the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia.

The bank said that it became a shareholder of En+ Group long before the sanctions, in 2011.

En+ Group held the IPO on the London Stock Exchange in November 2017 by selling 107.14 million global depositary receipts (GDRs) at U.S. $14 per security.

The Daily Telegraph reported last week that MI6 is concerned with the permit to hold the placement because Deripaska has links to the military industry and President Vladimir Putin.

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