Clifford Chance (CC) has teamed up with the Russian Stock Exchange (RTS) to launch a consulting venture to advise Russian companies on domestic and international listings.

The initiative, also backed by Russia's Association of Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs and accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, will provide free initial advice and support to local companies on the costs, procedures and benefits of a stock exchange listing.

Michael Cuthbert, CC's Moscow-based partner, told Legal Week: "The project is designed to help Russian companies take advantage of listings both in Russia and internationally. We will be able to provide advice and help companies look how to make a listing."

The unusual venture will have a website and a comprehensive database as well as offering the advice of CC and the other professional service firms.

Russian companies have rarely made listings on foreign stock exchanges, despite last year's London placing by oil giant Lukoil, the first such listing in the UK.

However, a recent upturn in investor confidence in Russian companies has led many lawyers to predict a resurgence in the national capital markets sector.

Cuthbert commented: "There is a huge demand for raising capital in the market place since the liberalisation of the economy. There are obvious ways of raising capital and follow the developing market."

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