Moscow: On Wednesday, Sberbank CIB and VTB Capital (coordinators of the transaction to float the diamond miner’s state-owned shares) opened an order book for purchasing 802,780,000 shares in ALROSA (10.9% of the state-held stock) after yesterday’s trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange closed, according to the company’s report released on the Exchange. Thus, ALROSA became the first company with state participation, whose privatization was scheduled for 2016 and actually started in the same year.

As it follows from the report of the diamond mining company, the Russian government has introduced a 180-day period banning the sale of shares held by the Federal Property Management Agency, as well as additional emission of shares by ALROSA and its subsidiaries. The order book will be compiled at an accelerated rate, according to the ALROSA report.

The order book is planned to be subscribed on Friday and the price at which the diamond miner’s shares are to be sold will be known on Monday, the day when the Stock Exchange will start trading with an increased free float (34%), say three sources of Vedomosti close to different sides of the transaction. They could not name the exact range of prices; it is not known to the organizing banks either, the sources say, as the book will be built without a price range pointed out. The fact that the price range for placing shares is not determined is normal practice in case of accelerated book building, a source of Vedomosti close to one of the transaction parties says.