The Russian stock market came of age when RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) floated a 16% stake on the Russian Trading System to raise investment capital. The amount of money involved was tiny and the company is small by international standards but the IPO in April was a landmark in Russia's development towards a market-based economy.
RBC is Russia's leading online media and IT company. It provides real-time online stock market quotes for banks and brokerages as well as running the only dedicated Russian-language financial newswire service. Having built up expertise in programming it has more recently moved into IT solutions for companies and is planning to launch Russia's first dedicated business television channel in the style of Bloomberg TV.
The company's success comes on the back of Russia's economic recovery. Its revenues have doubled and profits have risen by a third every year since it was founded in the early 1990s.
"It is still early days for Russia's IT sector," says Yury Rovensky, RBC's general director. "But it has already begun. We have left square one and are now looking to develop businesses that already exist and start new ones that are missing."