moscow oct 8 reuters  a postpandemic economic recovery and a stock market surge to record highs are fuelling a pick up in listings in russia following a barren few years russian it company softline on oct 7 became the latest firm to confirm its intention to float on the london stock exchange in october 2021 several others are now expected to follow in a flurry of activity set in motion by the initial public offering ipo of state shipping company sovcomflot flotmm last october real estate database cian car sharing company delimobil food retailer vkusvill and the spb exchange are all preparing ipos in russia and abroad among others sources have said read more mercury retail group is aiming to raise over 1 billion in a moscow ipo by yearend three financial market sources told reuters but russia is not immune to market fluctuations gold miners gv gold and nordgold postponed ipos this year citing uncertainty and volatility in the sector below is an overview of major market debuts by russian companies  renaissance insurance announced its intention to float on sept 27  in the first half of 2021 three companies staged market debuts cutprice retailer fix prices dual listing in london and moscow raised almost 2 billion in march making it the biggest russian ipo since western sanctions were introduced in 2014  forestry group segezha sgzhmm moscow exchange equivalent of 402 million and healthcare provider emc moscow exchange 500 million followed suit in april and july  kismet acquisition one corp  a special purpose acquisition company spac completed a deal with video game developer nexters to start trading nexters inc shares on the nasdaq in august it was the first deal involving a company from russia and a russian spac to list shares in the united states read more  the two major listings in 2020 were online retailer ozon ozono nasdaq 990 million in november and sovcomflot moscow exchange 550 million flotmm in october sovcomflots ipo marked the first major stock exchange flotation in moscow in three years  other ipos in 20192020 were samolet smltmm moscow exchange 382 million headhunter hhro nasdaq 220 million kismet acquisition one corp nasdaq 250 million don agro donasi singapore 36 million and gemabank gemamm moscow exchange 24 million  headhunters 2019 debut was the first ipo of a russian company in the united states since washington began imposing sanctions on moscow in 2014  in 2018 there were no russian ipos for the first time in a decade  sixteen russian companies carried out ipos from 20152017 compared with 43 deals between 2008 and 2014  the biggest russian ipo to date was a 107 billion flotation by oil major rosneft in london and moscow rosnmm in 2006 followed by an 8 billion offering from staterun vtb bank vtbrmm in 2007 reporting by alexander marrow additional reporting by olga popova editing by andrey ostroukh and david gregorio