London Beats Moscow as Russian Listings Flee Medvedev’s Market

Russia’s largest gold company moved its share listing to London from Moscow in July, and the nation’s biggest phosphate fertilizer producer is considering the same change, a blow to President Dmitry Medvedev’s plan to turn the former Soviet capital into a global financial hub 20 years after the fall of Communism.

While companies in Russia, the world’s largest energy exporter, are reaping record profits from rising commodities, an increasing number of the nation’s biggest businesses prefer to list their shares overseas to avoid trading halts, local currency swings and regulations that are less stringent than Europe’s. Polyus Gold International Ltd. said it moved to London to gain access to foreign investors, while OAO Phosagro sees a primary listing in the U.K. capital as its “ultimate goal.”