Nord Gold unlikely to retry London float this year as Severstal looks for growth
RUSSIAN mining and steel group Severstal is unlikely to bring its Nord Gold arm back to the market for another IPO attempt this year, the firm’s chief financial officer told City A.M. yesterday.
“Definitely we believe we will come back to the market when we are ready,” said Alexey Kulichenko. “We really need to focus on integrating the company and showing to everybody that we are able to deliver both volume and value efficiency in the business.”
Nord Gold, whose London float to raise up to £622m was shelved last month, is one of the few organic growth stories in the group, Kulichenko said.
“We were just not happy with the market, their expectations of our growth prospects, and we decided that it didn’t reflect the value that we were looking for,” he added.
Nord Gold would have joined the FTSE 100 had it floated, with a market capitalisation of around £3bn. Severstal hoped to use the funds to fuel expansion and pay down its debts.
The firm was one of four Russian groups to pull out of London listings last month.
FTSE-listed Severstal posted a fourth-quarter loss of $352m (£216.5m) yesterday to round off a yearly loss of $577m, slightly ahead of expectations, as discontinued operations hit the firm’s bottom line.