BelAZ truck to hold first Belarusian IPO

Belarusian truck maker Belarusian Autoworks (BelAZ) is to hold an initial public offering, the first time a Belarusian enterprise has gone to the markets, General Director Pyotr Parkhomchik said on Monday. "A working group to prepare the enterprise for the IPO has been established in BelAZ. The company is going to transfer accounting to international financial reporting standards for that purpose," Parkhomchik told state Belarusian Economy magazine, without specifying where BelAZ would try to float. The company is likely to start contacts with foreign banks to conduct the IPO by the end of 2012, Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said in late February. BelAZ had planned last year to trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in cooperation with Deustche Bank, but the bank later pulled out of the project and curtailed its cooperation with Belarus. "BelAZ will be the first Belarusian company to hold an offering. [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko also said some time ago that BelAZ will be the first company which Belarus will try to sell on the international markets," VTB Capital analyst Vladimir Bespalov told RIA Novosti. BelAZ is included in a Belarusian privatization plan in which Minsk hopes to raise $2.5 billion. Minsk would face difficulties selling the company's shares as "Belarus values its assets rather highly and this is a big problem if investors want to pay the proposed price with Belarusian risk," Bespalov said. BelAZ says it will provide future investors with full information to promote the company's stock on foreign markets, General Director Parkhomchik said. BelAZ manufactures heavy-duty and super-size mining dump trucks, half of which are exported to Russia, the firm says.