Russians in $1bn fundraising

RUSSIA’s second-largest electricity and thermal-power group, OGK-2, plans to raise $1.1 billion (£540m) from investors through a secondary listing of its shares on the London Stock Exchange. The group, which will have a market value of about $5 billion, is one of a series of electricity generators being sold off by the Russian government.

OGK-2 operates five power stations in Russia and had revenues last year of $1 billion. It is owned by UES, a power group that until recently had a monopoly on all conventional power generation in Russia. UES, headed by Anatoly Chubais, the former privatisation minister, is due to be wound up next July as six power firms are spun off. Gazprom, the state-controlled gas giant, has a 10% stake in UES and is thought to have been interested in gaining control of OGK-2.

Oxfam’s internet drive

OXFAM will launch an online shop on Friday selling 50,000 donated items over the web. Volunteers across Britain have been stockpiling donations to sell online during the past few weeks. The launch is expected to revolutionise the way Oxfam raises money and sells to customers, almost 60 years after it first opened high-street shops. The charity, which is trying to cash in on the growing trend towards ethical shopping, hopes to become a key player in the online-shopping world. It has 750 shops across Britain, staffed by 21,000 volunteers. In the last financial year, it sold goods worth £80m and made £25m profit.

Pret on the menu THE Icelandic bank Kaupthing is one of a number of parties thought to have submitted initial takeover offers for Pret A Manger, the sandwich-shop chain. Others reportedly interested in the chain, founded by Julian Metcalf and Sinclair Beecham, include Bridgepoint Capital and PPM Capital.

The chain has hired NM Rothschild, the investment bank, to advise it. The deadline for initial bids was last Friday.

£20m boost for leisure firm THE private-equity owner of Novus Leisure, the group behind the Tiger Tiger nightclub chain, has committed £20m to the business after a renegotiation of banking covenants.

Cognetas, formerly known as Electra Partners, is putting in an initial £5m of fresh equity to finance expansion, with the rest to follow in the next 18 months. The firm’s two main lenders, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, renegotiated the group’s lending facilities after a tough year but declined to provide further funding at this stage. The company said: “The core business is performing strongly.”

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