The Skolkovo Foundation in cooperation with Alor Investment brokerage and MICEX-RTS stock exchange is helping to launch an IPO of its IT cluster resident, VIST Group. The IPO is scheduled for the end of the year 2012 on the MICEX-RTS Innovations and Investment Market (IIM). VIST Group’s business lies in complex solutions for various applications in mining and metallurgy, power engineering and telecommunications. On the Russian and the CIS markets VIST Group enjoys a leadership position in the field of mine fleet management and control systems.
Alexander Lupachev, head of investment service of the Foundation, said at the IPO’s
announcement event, held at MICEX-RTS on May 15, that the foundation was pleased to see that a parent company of one of the Foundation’s residence has reached an IPO stage. "We know VIST Group for over a year, the company demonstrates positive dynamics, representing a unique combination of growing business and strong R&D component,” he said. ”The Skolkovo Foundation supports and will be supporting such companies, and we hope that our confidence in VIST Group will be shared by investors,” Alexander Lupachev of Skolkovo said.
Gennady Margolit, MICEX-RTS IIM executive director, stressed that the coming IPO is a joint project with the Foundation. "It shows that our Innovations Lift really works, and development institutes work hand by hand with companies, lifting them as high as public offering and stock exchange,” Margolit said.
Dmitry Vladimirov, VIST Group general director, said the company was created 20 years ago by a group of friends and partners. “At the early 2000s we completed our first full scale project on Kuzbass coal mine (Kemerovo region), later we cooperated with BelAz (super-heavy and mining trucks manufacturer),” Vladimirov said. Later on the company managed to introduce a management and control system on one of the key Russian railroads joints, at Mikhailovsky mining and processing complex at Kursk region. And by 2010, as Vladimirov said, the company already had its affiliates in all key mining regions of Russia, having achieved feasible success in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
In 2010 VIST Group, in cooperation with BelAz created a first robotic truck, and in 2011 it became Skolkovo’s resident with its project, entitled “The Intellectual Mine”.
The VIST Group’s EBITDa as of the end of 2011 was at 50 million rubles (about $1.7 million), net income was at 40 million rubles ($1.3 million).