CEE Equity

The European IPO market is getting busier, with several deals launched this week, and another close to being priced.

The IPO of Detsky Mir, Russia's largest toy retailer, is covered. It is set to be priced on Tuesday.

Tonight’s hail of block trades includes, besides the Lonza and Zoopla deals, at least two other transactions.

Detsky Mir, the Russian toy retailer, has announced the price range for its Moscow IPO, which could value the business at up to Rb77.6bn ($1.3bn).

Bankers hope 2017 will prove a more vibrant year for Russian IPOs, after the country's stockmarket was one of Europe's best performers last year and Western investors are thawing towards it.

The thaw in Western equity investors' and banks' sentiment towards Russia continued this week as Detsky Mir, the toy retailer, announced plans for the first Russian IPO of 2017, to be led by an array of bulge bracket investment banks.

Detsky Mir, the Russian children’s goods retailer, has announced its intention to float on the Moscow Exchange, more than two years after shelving plans to go public when Western sanctions were imposed on some Russian entities after the country's annexation of Crimea in 2014, and Russia suffered a recession.

Shares in MedLife, Romania’s largest private healthcare provider, gained 3% on Wednesday after it completed the first Romanian IPO since June 2014.

Vladimir Lisin, the Russian billionaire, has sold a 1.5% stake in Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), the Russian steel producer he controls, for $156m, through an accelerated bookbuild launched on Thursday night.

UniCredit turned to the equity-linked bond market on Thursday to dispose of its last 7.4% stake in Bank Pekao, after agreeing to sell 32.8% of the Polish lender to insurance company Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń and the Polish Development Fund, for Z10.6bn (€2.4bn).

The long saga of Rosneft’s privatisation ended on Wednesday evening with a surprise announcement by the Russian government of the sale of a 19.5% stake in the oil giant to Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority.

RussNeft, the Russian oil company controlled by Mikhail Gutseriev, has completed its oversubscribed Rb32.3bn ($502m) IPO on the Moscow Exchange.