April 17 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian poultry producer Gradus said on Tuesday it expects its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) to value the company between 400 million and 520 million levs ($253-$329 million/ 204-245 million euro).
"This is expected to be the largest IPO in our country since the crisis in 2008, and it will allow investors to enter one of the fastest growing and yet least represented sectors on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange - the food industry," Gradus said in a statement.
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The company added it has submitted its IPO prospectus to the Financial Supervision Commission and expects its shares to start trading on the stock exchange in Sofia in mid-2018. In February, Gradus said it will be seeking to raise over 100 million levs via its IPO.
Gradus also said in the statement it will use the proceeds of the IPO to expand its existing lines of business and add new ones for rolling out high-margin food products.
The company said it generated an after-tax profit of 39.8 million levs on consolidated revenues of 245.8 million levs in 2017.
Gradus claims a 35% share of the poultry products market in Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)