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Russian e-scooter firm Whoosh raises $33 mln in Moscow IPO

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IPO gives Whoosh market cap of $326 mln

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Whoosh reduced size of offering from earlier $80 mln aim

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This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine

MOSCOW, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Whoosh staged Russia's only initial public offering (IPO) of the year on Wednesday, though the e-scooter firm raised less than originally hoped in a market deprived of Western investors since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February.

The company said it raised 2.1 billion roubles ($33.2 million), less than half of its initial goal of $80 million.

The shares were placed at 185 roubles each, the lower end of the price range, giving Whoosh a market capitalisation of 20.6 billion roubles ($326 million), the firm said in a statement. By 1620 GMT, they were trading at 185.4 roubles.

Whoosh said existing shareholders had provided shares worth 200 million roubles for possible stabilisation in the secondary market, taking the IPO's total volume to 2.3 billion roubles.

CEO Dmitry Chuyko pointed to COVID-19, Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin's subsequent mobilisation of servicemen as challenges that his company had overcome to stage the debut.

He said liquidity was understandably low, with a free float at just 10%. "Of course, I would like (liquidity) to be more, but we have what we have," Chuyko told reporters at a bell-ringing ceremony at Moscow Exchange.

While breathing life into a moribund market, Whoosh's debut also reflects the small volumes and dependency on retail investors which are likely to characterise listings in a Russian stock market devoid of Western capital.

Whoosh said leading Russian investment funds, declining to give any names, accounted for more than half of the total IPO volume.

"In addition to institutional investors, more than 20,000 private investors became our shareholders following the IPO, which underlines the level of trust in our company and its ambitious goals," Chuyko said.

Asked if Whoosh had been hoping for more demand from retail investors, CFO Alexander Sinyavsky said the company had kept its expectations fluid.

With the market gripped by geopolitical uncertainty, he said it was difficult to predict what tomorrow would look like.

"We are satisfied that we received almost 1 billion (roubles) in demand from retail investors," he said.

Whoosh, whose yellow and orange scooters are a common sight around Moscow until snowfall forces a winter break, plans to use the funds to increase the size of its fleet and expand into new regions.

As of Sept. 30, it operated 82,000 scooters in 40 cities across Russia and ex-Soviet states, with 11.2 million registered users.

Russian companies harboured strong IPO hopes after a bumper year in 2021, which saw $3.7 billion raised and investment banks earn more than $100 million in fees, but the conflict in Ukraine has largely put paid to those ambitions.

($1 = 63.2000 roubles) (Reporting by Alexander Marrow, Olga Popova and Jake Cordell; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)