Niznik looks to reduce unquoted top stock Vostok

Artemis' Mark Niznik is continuing to eye a partial sale of his UK Smaller Companies fund's largest holding Vostok Energy, the unquoted Russian gas exploration company.

The position in Vostok, which at one stage last year equated to upwards of 20% of the fund, is currently 7.8% of the £328.3m vehicle, which Niznik says still remains too high. Niznik says the company is looking to IPO some time in the New Year, which is aiming to raise about $200m. "We are continuing to explore ways of reducing the holding before the IPO," Niznik says. "We still want to hold the stock because it still ticks all the boxes. Vostok has an 8-9% free cashflow yield and is starting to sell gas into a Gazprom line. "But the weighting should be lower; it is too much of ...