Bank VTB OAO : Russia's TCS Group launches London IPO to raise up to $750 million

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's TCS Group Holding, a parent company for credit card supplier Tinkoff Credit Systems, on Thursday launched a London initial public offering to raise up to $750 million (462 million pounds) and will use proceeds to grow its retail lending business.

TCS, founded and run by entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov, has been looking for outside funding to help to finance the company's growth plans. The bank said the IPO would also allow it to develop payments and insurance businesses.

The company said that, as of the end of June, its net loan portfolio was nearly $2 billion and it had issued over 3.5 million credit cards.

The offering will include a primary component - being sold by the company - of between $150 million and $200 million with the balance to be sold by Oleg Tinkov and other shareholders.

It will sell shares in the form of global depositary receipts (GDRs).

(Reporting by Megan Davies and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Mark Potter)

Stocks treated in this article : Sberbank Rossii OAO, Bank Vozrozhdenie OAO, Bank Sankt-Peterburg OAO, Bank VTB OAO, NOMOS-BANK ZAO