29th Jul 2005 07:02
Raven Russia Limited (the "Company") First day of dealings on AIM The Company is pleased to announce the commencement of trading in its ordinaryshares on AIM earlier today, following a share placing with institutionalinvestors raising ‚£153,000,000 (before expenses) by the issue of 153,000,000ordinary shares of 1p nominal value each (the "Placing").The Company will use the proceeds of the Placing to invest in the Russianproperty market with an initial focus on the warehouse market in the Moscow andSt. Petersburg regions. The Company has already begun discussions regardingpotential acquisitions. The Company has appointed Raven Russia PropertyManagement Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Raven Mount plc ("RavenMount"), as its property adviser under a five year contract.The directors of the Company believe that the Russian commercial propertymarket, in particular the Russian warehouse market, presents an attractiveinvestment opportunity due to: the high yields available in the Russianproperty market relative to other European markets, the level of excess demandfor modern, high quality warehouse space from blue chip, international anddomestic Russian tenants; the longer term prospects for capital appreciation;the eventual redevelopment potential of a property portfolio with a high landcontent; and the practice of rental payments being predominantly denominated inUS dollars.Raven Russia will also seek opportunities to enter into forward fundingarrangements, sale and leasebacks and tenant partnering ventures. It isbelieved that opportunities to partner multinational groups in Russia on theirreal estate requirements are also likely to become available in the nearfuture. The Company's primary focus is on property investment rather thandevelopment. However, Raven Mount is an experienced property developer and theCompany will consider deploying a proportion of its resources to propertydevelopment to the extent that such activity enhances its access to propertyinvestment opportunities.Adrian Collins, Chairman, Raven Russia, commented:"The placing reflects both a continued demand from investors for exposure toRussian assets and the value currently available in certain classes of Russianreal estate."Raven Russia was advised by Kinmont and Cenkos Securities. 29July 2005Enquiries:Nicholas Nelson, Hansard Communications 020 7245 1100 ENDRAVEN RUSSIA LTDRelated Shares:
RAV.L