Apr 18, 2024
EMMA Capital’s Premier Energy Plans Bucharest IPO to Fund Growth
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Premier Energy, one of Romania’s leading power distributors, plans an initial public offering on the Bucharest Stock Exchange to raise about €100 million ($107 million) to finance expansion plans.
The Bucharest-based company is seeking to complete the offer as early as May, pending regulatory approvals, as it targets a capital increase to boost its renewable energy portfolio, according to an e-mailed statement on Thursday.
Its main shareholder, the Czech investment company EMMA Capital, is also seeking to sell part of its shares for about €25 million, while retaining a majority stake in the energy firm.
Currently the third-biggest gas distributor in Romania with a 4% market share, Premier has doubled its client base to more than 2 million in the Black Sea country after completing the purchase of energy distributor CEZ Vanzare from Macquarie Asset Management this year. It’s also branched out into renewable energy and manages about 1,000 megawatts of that power capacity in Romania and Moldova, while there are plans to add 500 megawatts more in the next three years.
The company is looking at other neighboring countries for acquisition targets, with grid interconnections making Serbia and Greece potentially the most lucrative markets, Chief Executive Officer Jose Garza told Bloomberg in March.
“Now is the right time for Premier Energy to conduct an IPO and to leverage the exciting opportunities for accelerated development that a public listing will deliver,” Garza said in the statement.
Premier’s offering would be the first IPO on the Romanian market this year, almost a year after the largest ever listing on the Bucharest bourse by another power company. The $1.8 billion offering by Hidroelectrica SA was also one of the largest in Europe and helped the local stock market outperform European peers in total returns last year.
Citigroup Inc., UniCredit Bank GmbH and Wood & Co. are acting as joint global coordinators of the IPO. Alpha Bank Romania and BT Capital Partners are acting as joint bookrunners.
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