VKontakte to sell 3% shares prior to IPO

Pavel Durov, the founder of the largest Russian social network VKontakte, plans an IPO of the company, and before that sell 3% shares to a side investor in order to increase capitalization of the company before listing it at the stock market, innovation and venture news source UNOVA reports.

“We believe initial placement will be possible in 2012 or 2013,” he said.

Mr. Durov also said that at the time Vkontakte was not negotiating selling its shares neither with Mail.ru Group, nor with Yandex or Google. “But we might sell a small share – about 3% before the initial placement in order to grow capitalization of the company at the IPO,” he added.

The company started negotiations with investment banks about preparation and placement of shares at the New York Stock Exchange in the beginning of June 2011. As analysts said at the time, the IPO would become for the company owners an alternative to selling their business to Mail.ru Group. Alisher Usmanov and Yury Milner’s structure in summer 2011 increased its share in the social network to 39.99%, using its option on 7.44% shares in VKontakte.

Dmitry Grishin, the general director of Mail.ru Group, before that had announced its company’s plans to bring the share in VKontakte to 100%. “Strategically it would be right for us to buy control stage in the social network, or in the best case scenario, purchase all 100%,” he said.

In his turn, Mr. Durov specified then that VKontakte was an independent company with its own long-term course and mission.