MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian e-commerce firm Ozon intends to remain a public company, it said on Thursday, after being informed that the Nasdaq stock exchange planned to delist its securities.
Nasdaq suspended trading in the securities of a number of companies operating in Russia on Feb. 28, 2022, days after Moscow despatched tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine. On Wednesday, the exchange notified a handful of Russian companies of delisting plans.
“Going forward, and in any scenario, we act in the interests of our investors,” Ozon said in a statement. “We have of course been looking at various listing options since February 2022, when trading on Nasdaq was suspended and we definitely plan to maintain a listing on Moscow Exchange.”
Ozon, which has not been placed under any Western sanctions, said it would consider appealing Nasdaq’s decision.
“We believe that we have been and remain in full compliance with all applicable reporting obligations and qualitative and quantitative listing criteria of the exchange and met all additional requests for disclosure by the exchange since the suspension of trading on February 28, 2022,” Ozon said late on Wednesday.
Ozon raised nearly $1 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) in late 2020, a debut that sparked a mini-IPO boom for Russian firms.
Internet giant Yandex, recruiter Headhunter and payment service provider Qiwi were also notified of their anticipated delisting from Nasdaq, the companies said.
(Reporting by Olga Popova; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
