sian hypermarket chain starting trading both in Moscow and London today.It was a tough debut for the company, who struggled to get above its IPO price due to concerns over a weakening ruble and tensions in the Ukraine.
This morning the company set a price of $10 per global depositary receipt (GDR), at the lower end of a range of $9.5-$11.5, netting around £1 billion for selling shareholders.
Lenta, which is part-owned by US private equity firm TPG, formally announced its intention to float on the London stock exchange at the beginning of February.
In a statement issued at the time, CEO Jan Dunning said that the flotation will mark "a mar milestone for us and comes at an exciting time in Lenta's development".
"Our business model and flexible store formats have a proven ability to capture growth potential in the Russian food retail market, and Lenta is now pushing ahead with a program of store rollout across Russia. We now plan to double our selling space over the next three years".
TPG owns a 49.8% stake in Lenta. Russian bank VTB, which owns 11.7% of Lenta, has previously said it wants to sell by 2015.
Lenta has 77 hypermarkets in 45 cities across Russia. Lenta generated 110 billion roubles ($3.2 billion) in sales in 2012, which ranked it Russia's number five food retailer by revenue behind Magnit, X5, Dixy and O'Key.
