June 1 (SeeNews) - The CEO of the Belgrade Stock Exchange, Sinisa Krneta, said he expects the planned initial public offering (IPO) of MK Fintel Wind, a joint venture of Serbian vertically integrated conglomerate MK Group and Italy's Fintel Energia Group, to prompt more listings on the Belgrade bourse.
"If MK Fintel Wind succeeds in its efforts with the IPO, I believe great doors are opening up for Serbia," Krneta told SeeNews in an interview on the sidelines of a financial conference in Sofia on Wednesday.
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Earlier this month, MK Fintel Wind said it plans to carry out an IPO on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, the first one since 1940, offering between 20% and 40% of its capital. The company aims to raise 60 million euro ($67.2 million) from institutional and private investors that will be invested in the construction of a 117 MW wind farm in Kosava, northern Serbia, and other smaller projects, MK Fintel Wind said.
The pre-IPO of MK Fintel Wind is underway, Krneta noted.
The IPO's definitive timetable is expected to be delivered to the Belgrade Stock Exchange by the end of June, he added.
MK Fintel Wind expects its market capitalisation to stand at between 100 million euro and 120 million euro, the company said last week.
MK Fintel Wind, a 46/54 joint venture between MK Group and Fintel Energia Group, was set up in 2008 and already operates two wind farms in Serbia, with a combined installed capacity of 16.5 MW.
In February, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) exited its equity investment in Agri Europe, a Cyprus-based catch-all vehicle for the agricultural assets of Serbian conglomerate MK Group. Back then, the owner of MK Group, Serbian entrepreneur Miodrag Kostic, said this was just the first phase of cooperation with the EBRD and both sides are ready more than ever to move forward to the next phase with some larger and possibly more challenging projects.
The EBRD undertook last year a number of activities to develop local currency and local capital markets in the Western Balkans, notably the establishment of the Southeast European securities trading platform SEE Link, a virtual exchange which allows securities trading across the region. The Belgrade Stock Exchange became the fourth active member of the platform in December. In January, Serbian civil engineering firm Energoprojekt [BEL:ENHL] and oil group NIS [BEL:NIIS] joined the SEE LinX and SEE LinX EWI indices of SEE Link.
In an interview with Serbian magazine Magazin Biznis in October, Krneta, said that three companies were close to launching an IPO on the Belgrade bourse, as one of them had decided to go for it in May 2017.
Set up in 1893, the Belgrade stock market ceased to exist in 1953, when it was formally abolished by the Yugoslav government. The 32 biggest banks of the former Yugoslavia re-established the bourse in 1989. In 2000, the stock market started the secondary trading of shares in privatised companies.
($ = 0.890295 euro)