MOSCOW (Reuters) -Mercury Retail Group on Wednesday became the latest Russian company to announce plans to float, while IT group Softline priced its London IPO at the lower end of its target range, highlighting a rush of Russian listings. Russian IPO activity, hit by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, has picked up pace as the economy improves and concerns over more Western sanctions fade. Including Softline, whose global depositary receipts (GDR) are expected to start trading in Moscow on Nov. 1 in a secondary listing, the Moscow Exchange expects four IPOs by year-end. Mercury Retail, which runs two chains of nationwide alcohol and convenience stores, said it intended to hold an initial public offering of GDRs on the Moscow Exchange. The group’s more than 14,000 low-cost stores have benefited from a mix of low incomes and rising inflation that is stifling purchasing power in Russia. It made 328.7 billion roubles ($4.7 billion) in revenue in the first half of this year. Mercury Retail is hoping to raise more than $1 billion via an IPO this year, sources told Reuters last month. Its valuation could be as high as $20 billion, which would make it the biggest listing in terms of valuation in Russia in several years. Most of the business is owned by three men -- Sergei Studennikov, founder of the group’s Krasnoe & Beloe chain holds a 45% stake, while Igor Kesaev and Sergei Katsiev hold 37% and 8% stakes respectively, the company said in a presentation. Meanwhile, IT company Softline raised $400 million in its market debut on the London Stock Exchange, with its final offer price of $7.50 per GDR at the lower end of its target range, implying a valuation of around $1.5 billion, the company said on Wednesday. Softline did not give a reason for the pricing being set at the lower end of the range. Inflation and global supply chain crunches have increased stock market volatility across Europe and Russian listings have not escaped the fallout. Renaissance Insurance listed below initial targets last week. Softline, headquartered in London and operating in more than 50 countries, said it had offered 53,333,334 GDRs representing newly issued ordinary shares and would also offer up to 8,000,000 GDRs being made available by certain existing shareholders as an over-allotment option. Reporting by Alexander Marrow and Olga Popova; editing by Jason Neely and Jane Merriman