Moscow Exchange teams up with Closir to offer corporate access

The Moscow Exchange (Moex) has announced a deal with corporate access platform Closir to offer international investors access to Russian companies at the exchange’s Moex Forums in Moscow, London and New York.

‘Mifid II regulations that have been rolled out in Europe and increasingly adopted in the US have impacted how corporate access is consumed by investors,’ says Anna Vasilenko, head of primary markets at Moex, in a statement explaining the exchange’s decision to start offering one-on-one meetings at its forums. The deal, she adds, ‘should help to drive awareness and attract additional investment to our markets.’

Moex will use Closir’s technology, which specializes in linking companies in emerging markets with international investors, to offer one-on-one meetings alongside its forums, the first of which will be held at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow on April 3-4. It will feature management teams from more than 45 listed Russian companies as well as keynote speakers including: Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Bank of Russia; Maxim Oreshkin, minister of economic development of the Russian Federation; and Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Further forums in London and New York will be announced later in the year.

While he notes in a statement that ‘from an IR and corporate access standpoint, Moex has long stood out as one of the most proactive and innovative exchanges not only in emerging markets, but also globally’, Michael Chojnacki, Closir CEO, tells IR Magazine that stock exchanges across emerging markets are increasingly offering enhanced support to their issues – with Mifid II only driving that trend further forward.

‘Mifid II has provided a great opportunity for exchanges to develop stronger ties with their issuers and support them in reaching the global investor community,’ he says. ‘And we are seeing exchanges become more active in supporting their issuers with exposure to global institutional investors. It is interesting to see exchanges in emerging and frontier markets being some of the most proactive in the world in this regard.’

Examples of IR initiatives Chojnacki says are increasingly being offered by emerging market exchanges include hosting investor conferences and one-on-one meetings with investors in main financial capitals, supporting issuers with capital market days, the launch of various IR training programs and partnerships with independent research providers.