March 6 (SeeNews) - Mart Bulgaria, a Bulgarian electronic retailer of pre-paid telecom services, plans to go public by the end of March to finance its investment plans, the company’s executive director said on Thursday.
“The company expects that this [start of trading in Mart Bulgaria's shares] will take place within the current month,” Dimitar Manolov told SeeNews. He added the current downward trend on the stock exchange in Sofia was no reason to delay plans.
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The stock market has been losing ground for months after international investors withdrew amid global financial turmoil. Another reason for the losses, which started in November, were fears that some stocks are overvalued, market sources say.
Manolov said the company will register for trading all of its current share capital. Majority shareholders will sell part of the capital, depending on the buying offers, but intend to keep control of the company in the medium term, he added.
Mart Bulgaria ( www.mart.bg ) has a share capital of 1.0 million levs ($749,900/511,460 euro) divided into the same number of shares. Ownership is equally distributed between Bulgarian businessmen Momchil Avramov and Petar Tabov.
Shares will be registered for trading with a price equal to their nominal value of 1.0 lev each but that does not represent an investment valuation, Manolov said. The method of selling will be determined subsequently as shares could be sold directly, through an auction or by other means determined by shareholders, he added.
Mart Bulgaria plans to use proceeds from the bourse listing for investments in hardware and software, Manolov said without disclosing their value.
Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission said on Thursday it has approved the company's prospectus for the bourse listing.
An increasing number of local firms announce plans to go public, aiming to capitalise on prospects for development of the burgeoning stock exchange in Sofia. Some of them, however, have postponed plans in the light of recent share price losses.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)