First Investment Bank (FIBank), Bulgaria’s fifth-largest bank, received 107 million leva from its Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE).
The IPOs were aimed at raising FIBank’s shareholders capital by 10 per cent to reach a value of 110 million leva.
One of the bank’s main shareholders, First Financial Brokerage House, offered an additional stake accounting for five per cent of the increased capital during the public offering.
The total stake of 15 per cent earmarked for a free-float was overbid six times, pricing the bank at 1.18 billion leva while the price of 10.7 leva a share reached the upper part of the indicative range of the issuer.
Through the transaction, FIBank will become the largest financial entity traded on the BSE. Secondary trade in FIBank shares is expected to start in about a month.
FIBank has three subsidiaries - Diners Club Bulgaria, FIB Albania, and First Investment Finance B.V. Netherlands.
The assets of the bank grew by 25 per cent last year to 3.2 billion leva. The net profit is reported at 29 million leva for last year and is expected to grow nearly two times this year.
Another bank, Municipal Bank placed a close to 20 million leva 10-year bond on May 22. Municipal Bank is trying to support its development and market share, MB said in a statement. The bond was privately placed with Deutsche Bank, which is the manager of the issue. The issue has a fixed coupon for the first five years and a floating rate for the second half of the period, the bank said without elaborating. It said that the issue could be registered for secondary trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Municipal Bank is majority owned by Sofia municipality (67 per cent) and ranked as Bulgaria’s 16th biggest bank by assets at the end of March. Bulgaria has 25 locally-registered banks and the branches of five foreign banks.
Last month the municipality selected a consultant to prepare and supervise the sale of its stake in the bank.
Meanwhile the broad index of BSE on May 22 extended its winning streak in positive sentiment and record-breaking trading volumes, brokers told wire agency SeeNews.
The BG40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded stocks on the BSE, ended at a record high for a fifth consecutive session, reaching 279.68 points, up 1.13 per cent from May 21. The blue-chip Sofix index of the 16 most liquid shares was up 1.8 per cent to 1.331.12 points.
The rise of BG40 was supported by gains in industrial conglomerate Chimimport and its banking arm CCB, both parts of the Sofix. Chimimport reached 3.57 per cent or 11.6 leva, while CCB jumped 4.71 per cent to 8.9 leva. Among the biggest gainers on May 22 was blue-chip battery maker MonBat, which on May 21 reported that its net profit through April had doubled on the year, raching 4.4 million leva. The news helped MonBat share add 2.6 per cent to close 11.8 leva on May 22. The same day Bulgaria’s financial regulator de-listed Bulgarian battery maker Energia, majority-owned by the US industrial battery maker EnerSys, from the register of public companies.
Trading in shares of Energia was stopped as of May 21.
