The private placement ran between December 21 and 27, during which 53 investors subscribed 20,596 euro-denominated bonds. The offer was oversubscribed as it overshot the targeted maximum threshold of 20,000 bonds and was therefore supplemented, as per a press statement.
The Group plans to have the bonds listed in the first quarter of 2023, before the payment of the first coupon, which will take place in April 2023, to the investors holding the bonds as of the end of March 2023.
“The trust shown by investors in the eight years since the listing allowed us to grow from a company with revenues of RON8 million in 2014 to a group with a combined turnover of approximately RON250 million in 2022 (…). The capital raised in this placement, in which my brother Cristian and I participated by subscribing to BNET bonds, will further support the expansion of our Group,” stated Mihai Logofatu, CEO of Bittnet Group.
The capital raised will most likely be used to finance the acquisition of a 70% stake in Dataware Consulting SRL (Dataware), an IT&C integrator of products and services, that will join the “Cloud & Infrastructure” business group within the Technology Division of Bittnet Group. The transaction is subject to approval by the Competition Council. If finalized, the consolidated results of the Bittnet Group, including the performance of Dataware, will result in annual revenues of over RON300 million, the statement also reads.
The raised financing is EUR1,961,144. The bonds with a nominal value of EUR100 have a maturity of 42 months, the interest rate is 9% per year, and the coupon is payable quarterly. The euro-denominated bonds will be listed on one of the Bucharest Stock Exchange’s markets, AeRO or the Main Market, with the management’s preference for the latter.
“We are thrilled that despite all the challenges the local capital market has withstood this year, the stock market works, and solid companies with a proven track record can raise capital. In our case, the success of this offer is, in our view, driven by the fact that year-by-year, since 2015, Bittnet’s financial results have been supported by a strong cash flow. This gives investors a sense of security when choosing to invest in Bittnet. We will always keep this promise to our investors. In 2023, depending on the needs of the Group as well as on the market conditions, we intend to carry out other financing rounds by issuing bonds, preferably through successive public offers,” said Cristian Logofatu, co-founder at Bittnet Group.
BRK Financial Group intermediated the private placement. This is the sixth bond issue for Bittnet Group, which to date has already repaid in advance two of the corporate bonds – BNET19 with a total value of RON4.2 million and BNET22 in the total amount of RON4.5 million. The remaining three issues, BNET23, BNET23A, and BNET23C, will reach maturity in 2023.
BNET shares have lost 7.2% in 2022, amid deals worth RON34.6 million. The company has a market value of RON150 million, as per stock market data.