Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, raised $10.4 billion Friday from the sixth-largest initial public offering in corporate history in a deal that drew investor interest — but not much more, it seems.
It was an unusual public offering in that large stakes had effectively been placed beforehand with Asian and European oil companies. Those companies are also currently seeking other business in Russia, making it hard to judge the broader market reaction to the offering.
The company accomplished its stated goals, though, raising funds to repay $7.5 billion in loans to Western banks.
The shares do not trade until next week, but the initial public offering was oversubscribed one and half times. Foreign investors accounted for 36 percent of the demand, according to a statement from Rosneft.
Bankers said that the significant risk of legal challenges to the company’s ownership of Siberian oil fields, confiscated in 2004 from the Yukos oil company, reduced interest.
Not coincidentally, Rosneft timed the share float a day before President Vladimir V. Putin is host to a Group of 8 summit meeting in St. Petersburg that focuses on energy issues, ensuring strong backing from the government.
“Billions of dollars of investments are being made by major foreign partners,” Mr. Putin said in an interview with German television this week, referring to Rosneft. “I think this is absolutely correct. I am happy.”
Hedge funds, private investors and oil companies in Asia and Europe bought the stock for $7.55 a share, valuing the entire company at $79.8 billion. The market capitalization could rise above $80 billion if the advising banks exercise their options to buy additional shares.
Rosneft had set the price range for the stock from $5.85 to $7.85. Bankers involved in the deal said bids from oil companies and a large unnamed investor pushed the price toward the higher end of this range, in line with Rosneft’s ambitions.
“We could have gone to the top of the range and got the deal done,” Peter O’Brien, Rosneft’s American chief financial adviser, said in a telephone interview Friday. Rosneft executives, however, wanted to allow “upside” for the stock when trading opens in London and Moscow next week, he said.
Because the stock did not trade Friday, it is hard to assess how it will be greeted by investors who did not bid in the offering. In direct trading between brokerage houses in Britain on Friday, in lieu of a listing on the London Stock Exchange, shares rose a modest amount. .
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