A postcard from Tverskaya in downtown Moscow

This week the Moscow Times newspaper hosted a conference, "IPO: New Opportunities for Russian Companies" sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the Russian Investment Club, Finance magazine, the Finam Investment Company, and several other corporate sponsors. The September 18, 2007 conference featured high level speakers from the PIK Group, DLA Piper, the Federal Financial Markets Service, and Deutsche Bank. The event was hosted at the Marriott Grand Hotel in Moscow, located one block away from the Kremlin on Tverskaya.

Elena Khisamova, Deutsche Bank Russia's acting Head of Equity Capital Markets, provided the headline of the day with her estimate that 200 Russian companies, representing an estimated $500 million in combined market capitalization, have the potential to launch IPOs in the near future. In addition to her remarks about Russia's rising smallcaps, Mrs. Khisamova added that in the first nine months of 2007, Russian companies have recorded over $22 billion in initial and secondary placements.

Click here to read an article about the conference from Russia's Interfax News Agency.