State Property Fund Plans London IPO of Textile Producer.

The SPF announced yesterday that 25% of Texterno, a small textile producer, will be sold on the London Stock Exchange in late September to October. According to the SPF’s privatization schedule, the fund was supposed to announce the conditions of the placement on Aug, 23, but that hasn’t happened. This would be the first London IPO for the SPF, which hopes to get higher bids by selling shares on an international exchange. Olha Pankiv: This is a rather odd idea, as the company appears too small ($5.5m of net revenues, $0.2m loss in 2005) to justify the high London placement costs. However, there is hope for growth, as Texterno’s management has announced plans to invest EUR 50m to boost its capacity.