Finans (Moscow) - June 7, 2004

Capital. RBC - Information Systems Joint-Stock Company has begun a roadshow in Europe, devoted to an additional issue of shares in the company. The issuer has registered an issue of 15m common shares, making up 15 percent of the authorized capital. Presentation in connection with the issue will be held before June 15 in London, Geneva, Zurich, Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Aton Capital, Deutsche UFG and Troika Dialog jointly are the lead managers for the offering of the shares. The financial advisor for the company is ABD Capital/City Capital.

According to German Kaplun, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the RBC holding company, funds received from the offering of the additional issue of shares will mainly be used for buying IT and media companies. It is planned to allocate for this purpose about 70 percent of the funds to be received. The remaining 30 percent will be allocated for the implementation of new projects. "The company development strategy that we have chosen envisages intensive growth as a result of takeovers. We can see great prospects in the IT industry, and we will be buying companies at which we can increase the efficiency of business and can use their client base for promoting our products," German Kaplun stated.

The offering will be conducted for a limited group of investors in Russia, Europe and the USA. After the offering, the stakes of the current shareholders will be decreased proportionally. However, shareholders in the company as of January 12, 2004 have a preemptive right to buy the new shares at a discount of 3 percent of the offer price. Additionally, the company's management hopes that the offer price will be close to the current market price of its shares. The last deal on the RTS as of June 4 was concluded at a price of 11.9 per share. Therefore, the present market capitalization of the company is $190m, and the issuer will be able to receive about 128m from the offering of the additional issue.

In April 2002 RBC - Information Systems conducted the first IPO in the history of the Russian market on the RTS and on MICEX. Having offered 16 percent of its shares, the company received $13.3m at that time. The free float made up 26.5 percent of the company's capital as of May 31. Following the additional issue, it will reach about 36.1 percent of the shares. According to German Kaplun, the issuer plans to increase its revenue by 46 percent to $71m in 2004, compared to that in the previous year, and the estimated consolidated net profit will reach $10.8m, compared to $3.7m in the previous year. The company also plans to increase the value of its assets from $60.3m in 2003 to $72.1m by the end of this year. Obviously, this rapid growth cannot be unnoticed by analysts. Experts of Troika Dialog point out that RBC is so far the only public company in the rapidly developing sector of computer technologies. They reckon that the company's sales volume will grow to $206.5m by 2009, compared to $48.5m in 2003, and its net profit will increase to $59.4m. Therefore, the growth potential for the price of the company's shares can be estimated at hundreds of percentage points.