Polyus gold places 7.5% stake with VTB

Russia’s largest gold producer, London-listed Polyus Gold, has sold 2.5 percent of its shares to the country's second largest lender, VTB, and five percent minus one share to China's Chengdong for an overall sum of $635.5 million, Polyus said on Friday. Polyus plans to use the funds raised to repay debts and finance projects, it added in a statement. The Russian gold maker opened a bid book for a Secondary Public Offering to raise its share free-float to 25 percent from 14.5 percent in late April, in order to get a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange. J.P.Morgan Cazenove was chosen as the lead manager of the placement. Headquartered in Moscow, Polyus Gold's operating mines and development and exploration projects are located in five major gold mining regions in Russia - the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk Region in Siberia, the Far Eastern Magadan and Amur Regions, and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in East Siberia.