Nabiullina supported the exit of state-owned companies on the stock market

Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina supported the entry of state-owned companies into the stock market and said that this could attract “trillions of rubles.” She stated this at the NAUFOR conference “Russian stock market”.

“Not all state-owned companies want to enter the market, but I think this is very important. I strongly support this idea, because the problem of our financial market is a small number of issuers,” said Nabiullina (quote by Prime).

The Chairman of the Central Bank noted that even “industry leaders” in which “our citizens can invest” do not enter the stock market.

“But even those who leave, leave with a very small package, free-float is very small,” she stressed. According to the Central Bank, an increase in free-float in the Russian economy by several percentage points “may attract trillions of rubles to these companies from private investors.”

Earlier, the First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Vladimir Chistyukhin in an interview with Interfax declaredthat the stock market can become a source of funds for state-owned companies instead of the budget. He also noted that an increase in free-float (the number of shares in free float) of Russian companies would provide a serious investment resource.

“Average [объем акций крупных российских компаний] today it is about 32%, and if we take from company to company – someone has 10%, someone has practically released nothing on the market at all. The situation is different abroad. Approximately 50-80% is used there. The most basic calculations showed that if our companies raise their share of outstanding shares by at least 3 percentage points on average. – up to 35%, this will attract more than 3 trillion rubles. And if the share of shares in circulation reaches 50%, it will be almost 7 trillion rubles,” the deputy chairman said.