By Olga Popova

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Russia’s Arifmetika Financial Solutions will begin trading in Canada early in 2022. They also offer small loans to people.

A technical listing allows the microfinance business to trade on the stock market without having to make a public offer. This would increase the number of Russian listed companies provided that geopolitics and tensions, such as those over Ukraine, do not prevent the plan from being implemented.

Anton Titov (founder and director of OR Group), stated that the group plans to raise approximately $100 million. The deals will range from 12-15% for each round with plans for three more. Our plan is to bring 49% of the market within a year or year and a quarter.”

OR Group was founded in September as Obuv Rossii, a shoe chain. It has since expanded to be an ecommerce platform. In September it announced its intention to list Arifmetika via a SPAC-equivalent capital company (CPC), Navigator Acquisition Corp.

Titov expects Arifmetika to sign a final deal soon.

He explained how the technical offer differs from an Initial Public Offering, which is subject to stringent regulatory controls. “There’s variability here – You can either attract money slowly, diluting a large share, or making small additional issues.”

Russia saw a rise in IPO activity after the COVID-19 pandemic. The stock market rebounded and the global stock market surged. This was partly due to retail investments.

Nexters was a Russian video game developer who used Kismet, a Russian special purpose acquisitions company (SPAC), to trade shares on U.S. Nasdaq in August.

SPACs can be shell companies that are able to raise money for acquisitions of private companies and then take them public, without the need for an IPO.

Arifmetika’s listing is similar.

Titov stated that the company was founded in 2010 and has a revenue of 2.2 billion rubles ($29.75million) with a net profit of 600 million rubles.

Titov indicated that Arifmetika was seeking additional funding to enable it to assume a leadership position on a marketplace where many of Russia’s most important banks have begun to enter, and also for acquisitions.

Titov added, “Straight After the Deal, We are Ready for Effective Negotiations”, and that international expansion may be possible from 2023 after it has achieved significant progress on Russia’s market.

($1 = 73.9586 roubles)