SEVERSTAL MOSCOW (Reuters) - Severstal (>> Severstal' PAO), one of Russia's largest steelmakers, said on Thursday that its controlling shareholder, Alexei Mordashov, has sold a 2.1 percent in the company via accelerated book building.
Based on the sale price, Mordashov raised almost 16 billion roubles (205.29 million pounds) from the deal.
Ordinary shares were offered at 885.35 roubles ($14.94) per share and global depository receipts were sold at $14.97 per piece. The shares were sold to Goldman Sachs, which was arranging the deal, for resale to institutional investors.
Severstal shares were down 2.7 percent at 887 roubles per share in early trade on Thursday.
Following the deal, Mordashov would retain about 77 percent of Severstal, the company said, adding that Severstal itself would not receive any proceeds from the sale.
A Severstal spokeswoman said that the deal should support the liquidity of the stocks and improve the shares' weight in indexes.
According to VTB Capital's research, Severstal's free float should increase to 20.4 percent from 18.3 percent as a result of the deal, potentially increasing the company's weight in the MSCI Russia and EM indexes.
(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Zlata Zarasyuta; writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Christian Lowe)
