UPDATE 1 - EBRD buys stake in Romania's Premier Energy IPO

The lender bought 11% of the 35,937,859 shares offered in the IPO which ran from May 8 to May 15, for a total investment of 77 million lei ($16.8 million/15.5 million euro), the European lender said in a statement.

"Proceeds from the EBRD’s participation in the IPO will be allocated towards building new renewable energy capacity primarily in Romania, and the project pipeline is estimated to result in more than 168,000 tonnes annual carbon dioxide emissions reductions," the EBRD noted.

Shares in Premier Energy began trading at 20.5 lei apiece at 0900 CET on Tuesday on the main regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), bourse data showed. The company shares were priced at 19.5 lei per share in its IPO, resulting in a valuation of 2.4 billion lei.

Czech investment company Emma Capital, which fully owned the power infrastructure company prior to the IPO, holds a 71.25% stake in Premier after the offering.

In 2023, Premier Energy booked a consolidated net profit of 78.8 million euro on consolidated revenues of 912 million euro, according to selected financial data released by the company at the time of the IPO's announcement.

Established in 2012, Premier Energy Group is the third largest natural gas distributor and supplier in Romania. It is also the largest electricity distributor and the largest supplier in Moldova, providing power to some 70% of that country's population. The company has a contracted renewable electricity generation portfolio of more than 1,000 MW.

(1 euro=4.9767 lei)