SPB Exchange partners with Refinitiv as IPO approaches

SPB Exchange partners with Refinitiv as IPO approaches
The Mercury Tower is soon to become the new home of the St Petersburg Exchange. / Photo: Mercury Tower Press Team.
By Theo Normanton in Moscow November 18, 2021

St Petersburg’s SPB Exchange has announced two major steps to expand operating capacity and accessibility. The bourse is hoping that a partnership with market data provider Refinitiv and the first ever credit rating for its clearing subsidiary will add to its appeal to professional and retail investors alike as it undergoes its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Refinitiv, a market data company owned by the London Stock Exchange, recently announced a partnership with SPB Exchange which will see securities traded on the Russian bourse included in its real-time data feed.

This is an important step for the Exchange, given that around 99% of its transactions come from retail investors. Instant access to up-to-date information is crucial for traders, helping them understand how a security is performing. And it is harder for the humble retail investor to access such information than it is for professionals, who often have a range of expensive market tools at their disposal.

“Access to real-time data feeds is critical to the ability of institutions and investors to function and react appropriately to market conditions,” said Antonio De Gregorio, Managing Director of Refinitiv in Central and Eastern Europe. “We are proud to collaborate with SPB Exchange which offers a wide range of investment products to Russian and international investors,” he added.

This emphasis placed by the SPB Exchange on access to information comes as no surprise – the Refinitiv partnership was announced just weeks after the bourse launched its SPB 100 Index, recording the performance of prime international stockpicks in the portfolio of the average Russian retail investor, aimed at helping investors and analysts understand where the market is positioned.

As followed by bne IntelliNews, SPB Exchange is currently in the process of an IPO, offering up to 14.3mn shares on its own exchange with a price range of $10.5 to $11.5 per share. Already Russia’s leading platform for the trading of international securities, SPB is hoping to capitalise on its widespread reputation among retail investors by raising about $150mn in what is shaping up to be one of Russia’s most anticipated IPOs of late. It is expected that trading in the company's shares with the ticker "SPBE" will begin on the SPB Exchange's own platform on or around November 19.

Equally important for the Exchange in the run-up to its offering is the announcement that its clearing centre has been assigned a credit rating for the first time. The MFB Clearing Centre was rated A+ by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA), with a stable outlook. This enables the bourse to expand its risk handling and trade processing capacity. Indeed, the clearing subsidiary SPB Clearing is set to receive a capital boost from the net proceeds of the current IPO, alongside other subsidiary SPB Bank.

In an announcement on the bourse’s website, Roman Goryunov, CEO of SPB Exchange, said “Obtaining an ACRA rating is an important step in the implementation of our strategy to improve the reliability of our settlement and clearing infrastructure and to reduce the costs for market participants when working on SPB Exchange. Obtaining a rating allows clearing members to place funds in MFB Clearing Center with less capital pressure and to minimize provisions to meet the Clearing Center’s requirements, and for SPB Exchange Group it opens up greater possibilities to create new and develop existing exchange and clearing products in the interests of market participants. We will continue our long-term cooperation with rating agencies, which reflects our comprehensive efforts to improve the reliability of our exchange group.”

SPB Exchange is driving a retail investment boom in Russia, helped by its 19-hour working day, which allows its securities to be traded not only across Russia’s 11 time zones, but also on other continents, including in US markets. In 1H2021, total trading volume on the bourse reached approximately $206bn, representing an increase of 356% from approximately $45bn in 1H2020. The Exchange is also at the forefront of the retail equity investment revolution, with more and more Russians putting their money in equities as low interest rates at bank deposits coupled with rising living costs incentivise alternative means of saving.

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