Ksenia Galouchko

Nomos Bank headed for a six-month high as Otkritie Financial Corp. was said to be moving nearer to taking over the lender at a premium to the market price.

Nomos, part-owned by billionaire Alexander Nesis, surged as much as 3.8 percent before trading up 3.1 percent at 825.00 rubles by 2:56 p.m. in Moscow, the highest since April 3 on a closing basis. The shares rose 3.1 percent to $13.40 in London. Turnover in Moscow amounted to 5,769 shares, or 30 percent of the three-month daily average, while 43,035 shares, or 11 percent of the daily average, changed hands in London trading.

Otkritie plans to buy Nomos Bank for $14 per global depositary receipt, three people with knowledge of the plan said, asking not to be identified before a decision is announced. Otkritie’s management is holding final meetings with minority shareholders in Nomos and plans to complete the deal by the end of the year, the three people said.

“This news is positive because it confirms the deal,” Mark Rubinstein, an analyst at IFC Metropol in Moscow, said by phone. “There were concerns that the offer might be delayed.”

The yield on Nomos’s 2019 dollar bond fell three basis points to 9.687 percent today, the lowest on record.

Otkritie, which is 20 percent owned by state-run VTB Group, plans to increase its stake in closely-held Nomos to 100 percent within two years from 19.9 percent in August, the Moscow-based lenders said in a statement on Aug. 31.

After buying all of Nomos, Otkritie Financial’s top management will get 25 percent of the investment group, while affiliates of Nesis’s ICT Group, state-run VTB Group and businessmen Boris Mints and Alexander Mamut will each get as much as 10 percent stakes, according to the statement.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-19/nomos-heads-for-6-month-high-on-otkritie-buyout-moscow-mover.html