Premier Energy’s IPO in Bucharest heavily oversubscribed by retail investors

The retail investors placed orders for 47 million shares of Premier Energy during the first three days of the one-week IPO carried out by the natural gas and electricity utility company – more than six times the 7.5 million package initially earmarked for them (including the 20% supplementary option), according to Ziarul Financiar.

The retail investors can keep placing orders, but only those placed in the first three days qualify for the 5% discount.

The retail investors thus placed orders for shares worth some RON 1 billion (EUR 200 million).

However, they were aware of the oversubscription and pro-rata allocations since Ziarul Financiar announced on May 10 at 15:30 that 23.1 million shares were subscribed. Within the next 2:15 hours, until the end of the trading day, the number of shares subscribed by the retail investors doubled.

The retail investors will pay the same price set in the competitive bid organized for institutional investors, who are earmarked 25 million shares plus 20%. The indicative price range for the IPO has been set at between RON 19.0 and RON 21.5 per share.

Given the high oversubscription rate in the retail investors segment, the retail investors may be allocated a larger share than the 20% of the entire IPO initially envisaged.

Premier Energy seeks to raise over EUR 135 million with Bucharest Exchange IPO, of which just over EUR 10 million will be the fee paid for the operation.

Under the IPO, the company’s owner, EMMA Holding, seeks to issue between 25 million (Base Deal) and 30 million (Upsize Scenario) new shares and thus derive at least EUR 100 million for Premier Energy to finance its further expansion: the development and takeover of renewable assets in Romania and Moldova.

As part of the same deal, EMMA Holding also wants to sell 6.25 million-7.5 million of its shares to derive at least EUR 25 million in cash.

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