Premier Energy starts trading on Bucharest Stock Exchange after largest IPO of an entrepreneurial company in five years

Premier Energy (PE), one of the biggest energy groups in Romania, has started trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) following its IPO where it attracted RON 695 million (close to EUR 140 million). It was the largest IPO of an entrepreneurial company at BVB in the last five years.

The company’s initial public offering of 35,937,859 new and existing shares was priced at RON 19.50 per share, implying a market capitalization of RON 2.4 billion (EUR 489.8 million) at admission. On the first day of trading, the price of PE shares rose by over 8% to RON 21.2.

“Our journey started 11 years ago when Mr [Jiří] Šmejc, the founder of EMMA Capital, and I came to Romania to try and figure out what to do with a very small gas infrastructure business. Both of us came to the same conclusion: although the business itself wasn’t anything attractive, Romania was and is extremely attractive. We realized very quickly that Romania has a lot of potential; it has natural resources; it has a large industrial base; and, most importantly, very talented professionals. We decided to take the risk and invest and I think eleven years later our investment thesis has been proven correct, which is Romania will end up being a leader in the region,” Jose Garza, Chief Executive Officer of Premier Energy, explained at the event marking the start of the trading on BVB.

“One of the lessons learned during this IPO process was not to underestimate the small Romanian investor; they were able in a period of three days to come up with almost EUR 200 million. The small Romanian investor represents a huge asset for the country and we hope there will be other companies that will follow in our footsteps,” he added.

The retail investors were allocated 20% of the shares in the IPO and, during the offer, placed orders of RON 1.1 billion for a number of 51 million shares.

“We have grown as a company to a size where it created benefits to being listed, and it was important for us, as a company that is here, in the region, in Romania and Moldova, to have the listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. We see a lot of growth opportunities ahead and those will be a lot easier as a public, blue chip company,” Petr Stohr, CFO of Premier Energy Group, explained for RI.

“We think there is a great opportunity for sustainable energy to be generated in Romania and, in our case, in a vertically integrated model. It is one thing to have the generation, but then you also need to have the forecasting and balancing of that energy because it’s not sunny or windy every day. There needs to be other balancing sources. We will be looking at storage to be included as part of that formula. […] In our case, it’s investing in production but in a vertically integrated model,” he added.