Nord Gold, the gold division of the Russian miner Severstal, said Friday that it was postponing its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, with which it had hoped to raise up to $1.3 billion.
The company first announced its plans to go public in mid-January,planning to issue 441 million pounds of new shares and 370 millionpounds of existing ones.
Nord Gold said in its prospectusthat it had planned to use the capital raised from the offering torepay about $288 million in debt owed to Severstal, as well as to growthe company, which has mines in Africa, Kazakhstan and the RussianFederation.
The announcement Friday is the third in a series of Russian companiescanceling their plans to list in London, with the pipe maker ChelPipewithdrawing its plans on Thursday and the coal company Koks delaying itsproposed offering last week.
Morgan Stanley was the sole sponsor for the Nord Gold issue, joined by Credit Suisse as a joint global coordinator, and by Troika Dialog as a joint bookrunner.