Electrica IPO sees strong demand from individual investors: EUR 9 mln subscriptions in 5 hours

Romanian electricity distributor Electrica’s initial public offering (IPO), which started on Monday, June 16, gathered more than 550 subscriptions for a total of EUR 9 million, on the retail tranches, in the first five hours after it was launched, according to official data. Most subscriptions were on the small tranche of the offering, where investors can submit requests for 250 to 20,000 shares at a fixed price of EON 13.5 per share. There were 550 subscriptions on this tranche, for a total of 2.37 million shares. This is 19 percent of the 12.4 million shares which are initially allotted for this tranche. Small retail investors rushed to get the benefits as order of up to 1,000 shares get guaranteed allotment, which means that investors get all the shares that they request. Also, orders of more than 1,000 shares get a 5 percent discount on the final price, if placed in the first five days of the offering. On the large retail tranche, where investors can subscribe for more than 20,000 shares, there were five orders for a total of 554,000 shares. Some 14.17 million shares are allotted for this tranche. Electrica sells 177.19 million new shares which make 51 percent of its capital at a minimum price of RON 11 and a maximum price of RON 13.5. The company expects to make at least EUR 440 million for future investments. The offering ends on June 25. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com