Hidroelectrica IPO brings streak of all-time highs for Romanian capital market

The capital market in Romania has recorded a streak of successive all-time highs in the first seven months of this year and in July, marking one of the best periods in its history.

The list of records includes the largest IPO ever made on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) - the Hidroelectrica (H2O) offer worth EUR 1.9 billion (USD 2.1 billion), the largest number of investors in the Romanian capital market - 159,513 investors, and a record capitalization of listed Romanian companies - RON 202.1 billion (EUR 40.9 billion) on July 20, 2023.

Radu Hanga, President of the Bucharest Stock Exchange said: “The capital market in Romania is going through one of the best periods in history and we believe that recent developments confirm that the market is developing in the right direction. The value of Romanian companies listed on the BVB exceeded RON 200 billion, the equivalent of over EUR 40 billion, which is an all-time high for the capital market. The Hidroelectrica offer was the largest in Europe and the third in the world so far this year, and the Hidroelectrica phenomenon brought dozens of thousands of Romanians closer to the stock market and demonstrated that Romanians have an appetite for investment, which is encouraging for Romanian companies to get listed on the local stock exchange.”

The offer of Hidroelectrica (H2O), a leader in electricity production and the main provider of technological services needed in the National Energy System, which was held at the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) between June 23 and July 4, 2023, ended successfully and became the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever made on the Romanian stock market. Hidrolectrica’s IPO attracted a total of RON 9.28 billion (about EUR 1.9 billion EUR or USD 2.1 billion) for 89.7 million shares representing 19.94% of the total number of shares and became the largest IPO in Europe and the third largest in the world considering the IPOs so far this year. Hidroelectrica debuted on July 12 on the BVB’s Regulated Market and is the largest Romanian company listed on the BVB in terms of market capitalization.

Adrian Tanase, CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange added: “Hidroelectrica’s IPO achieved a performance that was difficult for analysts to predict: it moved 2% of the total types of deposits, expressed in all types of currencies, that the population held in banks after the total subscriptions on the retail tranche reached RON 6.3 billion. This indicator shows what potential the capital market has to attract from the savings of the population in case of significant offers. We believe Hidroelectrica is the best testimonial to persuade more and more entrepreneurs to start or resume the listing process because the market has shown that it has an appetite for investments in solid businesses. Romania has become an attractive center for both local and international capital flows as the degree of market development has increased.”