Bank of Russia proposes to increase transparency of companies going public

The Bank of Russia proposes to increase transparency of public stock offerings, and to make this possible, it is necessary to change the content of information disclosed by issuers and adapt it to the needs of retail investors, whose role has increased on the Russian capital market, as follows from the regulator's report submitted for public consultation, oreanda-news.com reports.

"The Russian stock market is restoring its potential at the expense of internal resources," the central bank noted, emphasizing that in order to create long-term investments, it is necessary to strengthen the environment of trust and openness in terms of information, and therefore considers it necessary to update the requirements for the content of documents important to investors.

According to the Bank of Russia, the inclusion of the issuer's forecast indicators in the offering prospectus will improve the quality of the IPO (initial public offering), which will make it possible to make investment decisions based on concise and easy-to-understand information.

Companies should provide investors with sensitive data on the planned and actual distribution of shares among buyers. "Before the public offering, information should be disclosed about restrictions on the sale of securities by the issuer and existing shareholders, as well as mechanisms used to stabilize the share price in order to reduce their volatility after the IPO," the report's authors indicated.

The Bank of Russia also suggests discussing the possibility of introducing regulation and standardization of services provided by offer organizers, which should also improve the quality of IPOs.

According to the cited source, the value of net assets of exchange-traded mutual funds (ETFs) of the money market on the Moscow Stock Exchange increased 4.4 times in 2024, exceeding one trillion rubles. The instrument's popularity has grown sharply against the backdrop of an increase in the key interest rate.