June 20 (SeeNews) - The initial public offering of shares of poultry producer Gradus [BUL:GR6T] on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange has attracted both institutional and retail investors, Gradus said on Wednesday after raising 81.4 million levs ($48.2 million/41.6 million euro) in the IPO.
The good mix of institutional and retail investors will hopefully result in active trading in Gradus shares on the Sofia bourse in the future, Gradus quoted Martin Dimitrov from lead manager First Financial Brokerage House as saying in a statement.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
Investors subscribed for 45.2 million Gradus shares, or 81% of the total number of offered shares, at a price of 1.8 levs apiece, making it the biggest IPO on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange since 2007.
The IPO held during June 18-19 demonstrated that large Bulgarian companies can successfully finance their business through the stock exchange, Dimitrov added.
Gradus' IPO also showed that a good company can attract new investors to the market, Dimitar Georgiev, head of trading at local brokerage ELANA Trading, told SeeNews on Wednesday.
The IPO is also notable because it happened at a moment when valuations on the BSE are much lower compared to the big offerings in 2006 and 2007, Georgiev said. He added that the conditions for entering the market, especially regarding small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), are becoming more and more attractive, considering the forthcoming EU-financed grant scheme covering the costs of SMEs related to carrying out an IPO.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)