In November 2004, Sedmoi Kontinent became the first Russian retail food company to offer stocks to the public by offering 8,415,573 ordinary shares with a face value of 0.5 rubles on the Russian Trading System (RTS) stock exchange. The company said it sold 8.42 million shares, corresponding to a 13% share in the company, at a price of 275 rubles ($9.59) per share, raising a total of $80.7 million, and said that it was planning to use the money to finance new stores. Sedmoi Kontinent was the eight Russian company to make initial public offering since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
