Polymetal, one of Russia's largest gold and silver producers, wants to place shares abroad to increase liquidity and simplify investor access, Kommersant business daily said on Wednesday.
Polymetal will hold a board of directors meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to discuss ways to facilitate raising investment and assets for shares deals, a source familiar with an agenda of the meeting told the newspaper.
The source said that the company was considering four scenarios - a secondary public offering in the U.S. and Canada, a merger with a public company, a reverse takeover of a public company, or setting up a new parent company in the UK and then floating a quarter of its shares on the British market.
The core scenarios are floating a new parent company in the UK and an acquisition of a public company with a further reverse takeover.
A Polymetal official confirmed that the board of directors would meet on Wednesday but declined to elaborate.
Another source told Kommersant that the directors were most likely fail to decide on the scenario at the meeting and order management to analyze them.
Uralsib financial corporation analyst Nikolai Sosnovsky said that Polymetal was looking to expand to other regions and since the company preferred buying assets by swapping them for its shares, it needed more lucrative securities for international deals.
MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti)
