Russia's veteran bank Sberbank is considering listing on the Singapore stock exchange. Chairman and chief executive Herman Gref confirmed the plans of Sberbank. Moreover, the information was reported by The Straits Times. “Singapore is the friendliest jurisdiction from any point of view,” Gref said. Currently, the management board of the bank is considering the issue of bonds. It is also working to attract capital inflows from Asian markets. Sberbank’s depositary receipts for shares are trading on Frankfurt and London stock exchanges with their volume totaling about 25 percent of the equity of the bank (1.35 billion ADRs). As for the Singapore-based stock exchange, it already has experience of cooperating with Russian companies. The first company to list there was Gazprom. The energy giant took this step right after the first threats of sanctions against Russia by the EU and the US. According to official data, ADRs for Gazprom’s shares trading on the London stock exchange started trading on SGX in June 2014 as well. At that time, the energy company tried hard to boost liquidity and attractiveness of its shares without issuing the new ones. Note that up to 57 percent of Gazprom’s equity can be traded in Asia without significant outflow of liquidity to the LSE.
